Brookes News Update

How the Laffer curve really works: The basis of the Laffer curve is the intuitive knowledge that if you want more of something then reduce the cost of producing it. Nevertheless, no one has shown how the Laffer curve works This article attempts to do just that with the use of a couple of simple diagrams
Defending tax cuts against leftist journalists: Lefty journalists cannot help themselves. Once again revealing their total ignorance of economics, economic history and the history of economic thought they engaged in scaremongering by making false statements about the dire consequences of tax cuts
China's economy is heading into very stormy weather: Credit-led boom is piling up ever increasing amounts of malinvestments. Calculations done by Morgan Stanley estimated that whereas 13 per cent of reported profits were of the non-operating variety last year, this has now soared to over 30 per cent
Hillary Clinton's middle class tax hike: Hillary Clinton is planning a range of tax hikes that will sock it hard to the middle class, which is odd considering that politicians like Hillary constantly talk about how much they want to help the middle class
Fidel Castro: Reagan's savior?: The evidence that Castro personally ordered the murder of President Kennedy is steadily mounting. Nevertheless, the media still refuses to report anything that might possibly implicate Castro in Kennedy's assassination. So much for media honesty
Clinton Doctrine versus Bush Doctrine : The Clinton doctrine is carried forth today by Democrats who blame America for the terrorists who seek to overturn the will of millions of Iraqis who voted in the first free election held in the region in history
Moonbats jump the shark: All the Democrats have to sell are defeat, fear, and bad news - plus their traditional solutions for any perceived problem: higher taxes and more government control over your life. Thus any good news for America and the world is bad news for them
The Gray Lady's shame: Never has the New York Times behaved more shamefully on September 10, 2007. On that day it ran a full-page ad accusing General David Petraeus of being a traitor for doing his job fighting the War of Terror
Productivity vs. jobs: another economic fallacy: Like all enemies of the market Mike Steketee cannot bring himself to accept certain fundamental economic laws, one of which is that overpricing goods or services will create a surplus. According to this genius increasing productivity destroy jobs and creates poverty. So does Rupert Murdoch's Australian publish Steketee's rubbish?

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Union Fund Embezzlements 'Epidemic,' Analyst Says: "Eleven union officials were indicted and eight were convicted in August on charges of embezzling union pension funds, following probes launched by federal auditors and investigators at the U.S. Department of Labor. According to a report released Monday by the department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), 84 indictments for corruption have been issued thus far in 2007, leading to the conviction of 108 union officials. All told, nearly 800 convictions have been obtained since 2001, with court-ordered restitution exceeding $101 million, said Deputy Assistant Labor Secretary Don Todd, who announced the report's release. In the largest enforcement effort, Jorge Aponte-Figueroa, the former president of the International Longshoreman's Association Local 1740 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for embezzling $1.9 million in union funds. He also was found guilty of falsifying records and money laundering".

Kicking them when they're down: "Politicians and bureaucrats have power and are often careless about how they use it. Respect for the rights of innocent people? Not always a priority. Not even in New Orleans, where so many are struggling to pick themselves back up after one of the toughest gut punches anybody can suffer. So you live through Hurricane Katrina, return to the city, spend thousands to fix your home. Double-check to make sure it isn't targeted for demolition. Then what? Well, if you're IdaBelle Joshua, two days after City Hall says your home is safe ... it's smashed! Gone. No prior notice except tiny type in a newspaper somewhere."

Wheel rediscovered: "For centuries men believed themselves to be smarter than the fairer sex, who they felt were only equipped for wifely duties. Now a study has revealed that the male of the species is actually more intelligent. But there's a catch - he's also more stupid. When scientists measured the intelligence of more than 2500 brothers and sisters, they found a disproportionate number of men in both the top 2 per cent and the bottom 2 per cent. There were twice as many men as women in the smartest group. But there were also twice as many men among the dunces. The subjects were tested on science, maths, English and mechanical abilities. The average scores of the men were virtually identical to that of the women. Professor Bates, of Scotland's Edinburgh University, said: "The female developmental program may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and the safety of the middle ground."

Same old drivel: "Listening to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad address the UN, I was struck by how mainstream American left he is. From his anti-Semitism to blaming the United States for all the woes of the world to blaming poverty on capitalism - even to his views on global warming - Ahmadinejad hit all the lefty talking points except for gay marriage. Well, Bill Clinton codified don't-ask, don't-tell and signed DOMA into law. Nobody's perfect. But Americans have heard it all before. In the 1960s, it was Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro. In the 1970s, Yasser Arafat. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev. Last year, Hugo Chavez. This year, this guy. What they share in common besides their iron-fisted rule at home (Arafat within the PLO) is a streak of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism."

Tax the internet? "Legislation in Congress to make the Internet tax ban permanent has strong bipartisan support, but that doesn't mean it should be taken for granted. In fact, it recently hit a snag over the unrelated issue of how satellite TV is taxed, while there continue to be disputes over when grandfather clauses that allow some states to tax the Internet should finally be closed. Given the tight timeframe - the current moratorium is due to expire on November 1 - it's possible that a slew of new Internet taxes could in fact arrive this fall.... A federal moratorium first put in place in 1998, and subsequently extended, has protected the Internet from access taxes and discriminatory or multiple taxation... If the moratorium is allowed to expire, states will likely impose new taxes on Internet access fees, bit-taxes on downloads, and perhaps even e-mail taxes."

Major Insurance Company Planning to Escape Germany's High Taxes: "Hannover Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, is considering switching its operations to Ireland or another low tax jurisdiction, the company's chief executive told a conference recently. According to Bermuda's Royal Gazette, Wilhelm Zeller, CEO of Hannover Re, told a press conference at the annual reinsurance gathering, Le Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo, that the $5.5 billion firm is considering moving from its present base in Germany... "For us, the ideal location, from a fiscal point of view, would be Ireland," Zeller stated, although he added that setting up headquarters in Dublin could be costly." [H/T Market Center blog]

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Islamics and Leftists have a "logic" that serves their needs, not truth

With projection and denial prominent

In the unconscious mind, where symmetrical logic rules the night, the stronger the emotion one is feeling, the more "symmetrical deductions" are likely to occur. For example, as Bomford writes, on a deep unconscious level, "one who hates has to believe that his or her hatred is returned." Note that this is a logical operation, only based upon a different sort of logic. This logic is no doubt the source of the psychotic fear of Israel in the Islamic world. Their unconscious hatred is so profound that it simultaneously reverses the relation, so that they can't help perceiving that Israel hates them. But Israelis just want to shop, raise their families, or read the Torah. They couldn't care less about Muslims, except to the extent that bloodthirsty Muslim barbarians harbor murderous rage toward them.

It's fine to hate evil, but in the Islamic world, what is hated is transformed into evil. Something is not hated because it is evil, but evil because it is hated. One could say the same of the left, which habitually fears what it eternally hates. The left cannot be comprehended unless one appreciates the extent of their unbound hatred. Once this is grasped, what seems illogical is suddenly seen to obey the dictates of symmetrical logic. For example, the unconscious feeling that I hate America and want us to lose in Iraq is transformed to General Petraeus is a traitor, or I am a racist becomes America is racist, or I am unbearably envious becomes the wealthy are engaged in class warfare against me!

Another characteristic of the unconscious is that it is timeless, in the sense that it can reverse temporal relations. For example, in the unconscious mind, if A is the cause of B, B can also be the cause of A. Thus, "before" and "after" become meaningless. Therefore, although we were inexcusably attacked by Islamists on 9-11, within minutes, leftists were saying that the real reason for the attack was that we had done something to offend Muslims.

Likewise, throughout the Cold War, leftist scholars wrote "revisionist" histories, in which the United States was the cause of the Cold War, or at least equally responsible for it. You will notice that there are no conservative revisionists who write, for example, that blacks were the cause of their own lynching, or that Japanese Americans were the cause of their own internment. You can only think in this manner if you are pathologically under the sway of unconscious symmetrical logic.

Also in the unconscious mind, there is no distinction between the memory of something that actually occurred vs. the memory of a fantasy. Here we can understand how and why the left is so prone to mythologizing the past, as their fantasies are mingled with reality. Thus, no amount of reality and asymmetrical logic will ever convince them that FDR made the Great Depression worse, not better, or that the black family only began to disintegrate after the imposition of all the "Great Society" programs of the mid to late '60s. No amount of logic could convince a leftist that his policies harm the "little guy," since his ruling myth, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is that he is here to rescue the hapless little guy (for whom the leftist always feels rich contempt in the unconscious mind, contempt which only seeps out everywhere).

One thing you will notice about the left is that they are passionate. Because the left is guided by feelings and intentions, they are blind to the results of their actions. If their feelings are infinitely good, then in the unconscious mind, the results must also be infinitely good.

As I have written before, this is a religious passion in the absence of religion, so it has no traditional means to structure and channel it. Just as religion partakes of symmetrical logic in an adaptive way (i.e., the meek shall inherit the earth, the Golden Rule, humans are made in the image of the Creator, etc.), leftists do so in a terribly unhealthy way. That is, because of the intensity of their feelings, these feelings reach way down into the symmetrical realm, with no way to structure or make sense of them. This is why you always see so much highly charged, "unfiltered" unconscious material coming out of the left. To borrow a metaphor from someone, reading dailykos or huffington post is like taking a ride through a sewer in a glass bottom boat.

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Ahmadinejad hears some home truths: "I can't pretend to understand Lee Bollinger. I'm not sure why he invited Mahmoud Ahmadenijad to disgrace his campus, and whether the invitation was a ruse to get the diminutive dinner jacket on the same stage so the Dean could blast the Mahdi with the Mahdi's list of horribles. Regardless of how stupid inviting Ahmadenijad to the Columbia was in the first place, let's give Bollinger credit for standing face-to-face with evil and calling it out. If you didn't see Bollinger's speech, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Suffice to say, Bollinger used the occasion to deliver a Sister Souljah moment on behalf of academia. His attack on the Mahdi was withering, something so harsh that it could have sprung from the modem of a conservative blogger. Bollinger's speech today, for what it's worth, gets an A . The Mahdi, clearly with hurt feelings, labeled the speech a "wave of insults."

EU may fund anti-Semitic radio station: "The head of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel is urging the European Union not to pour tens of millions into a Polish ultra-nationalist Catholic radio station infamous for its anti-Semitic programming. The 15.5 million euros in EU funding would be allocated towards the expansion of a journalism school for the controversial Polish radio station Radio Maryja. "The head of the radio station, and the radio station itself, is known throughout Europe as a symbol of the increasing wave of global anti-Semitism," head of the umbrella organization of Holocaust survivors in Israel, Noah Flug, wrote in a letter to the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso."

The Holy Father defends religious liberty: "Another cause highly esteemed by all of you is the defence of religious liberty, which is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right rooted in the dignity of every human being and acknowledged by various international documents, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice. In fact, religious liberty corresponds to the human person's innate openness to God, who is the fullness of truth and the supreme good. An appreciation for religious freedom is a fundamental expression of respect for human reason and its capacity to know the truth."

Iran smuggling surface to air missiles into Iraq: "The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.... Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system. Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Explaining Liberal Thinking In A Single Column

By John Hawkins

Liberals love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced, but liberalism is incredibly simplistic. It's nothing more than "childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues." Very seldom does any issue that doesn't involve pandering to their supporters boil down at its core level to more than feeling "nice" or "mean" to liberals. This makes liberals ill equipped to deal with complex issues. Since liberals tend to support or oppose policies based on how those policies make them feel about themselves, they do very little intellectual examination of whether the policies they advocate work or not. That's because it doesn't matter to them whether the policy is effective or not; it matters whether advocating the policy makes them feel "good" or "bad," "compassionate" or "stingy," "nice" or "mean."

Because of this, liberalism has more in common with religion than it does with other political ideologies like conservatism or libertarianism. Moreover, liberal beliefs are more like religious doctrine than any sort of battle-tested policies that bear up under logic or examination. Although the interpretation of the doctrine that the Left supports may change a bit over time, just as religious doctrine does, it's essentially taken on faith, like scripture. That's why, for example, you may see ferocious debates on the right side of the blogosphere about the war, illegal immigration, or spending. But, with the netroots, the debates almost always revolve around the best strategy to get more liberals elected. The issues are not really up for debate, other than debate over how to get them enacted.

This same thinking leads to very little criticism of liberals by other liberals. Liberals will ferociously defend and even happily echo the lies of other liberals. Liberal feminists will defend Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy. Liberals who pride themselves on being tolerant of other races will support Robert Byrd. Why? Because even if they're wrong, they're still fellow liberals -- which must mean they're nice people. What this leads to is an attitude that can be summed up like so: "The only things that a liberal can do wrong is to be insufficiently liberal, to question an important plank of the liberal agenda, or to do something politically that aids conservatives." ...

* Why are so many liberals hostile to religion? Because religion sets rules and tells people that if they break those rules, they're sinning! That keeps people from doing things that make them feel good and telling people that they're sinning makes them feel bad.

* Why are so many liberals hostile to the troops? Because the troops tend to be conservative (evil) and because they're out killing people and breaking things (which would make most liberals feel like bad people).

* Why are so many liberals unpatriotic? It makes liberals feel morally superior to rant about what's wrong with their own country. Plus, as an added bonus, people from other nations agree with them and that makes them feel good as well....

* Why are liberals so hostile to successful people who don't happen to be celebrities, trial lawyers, or big donors to the Democratic Party? Again, this is another great opportunity for them to feel morally superior. They can feel like good people because they want to give money to the poor -- granted, not their money, but rich people's money. The rich have so much and the poor have so little, so why shouldn't liberals take it from them and then pat themselves on the back for their compassion?

Once you understand the basics of how liberals think, you can understand everything that they do. Granted, there will be a few exceptions, but if the vast herd of liberals is doing something that doesn't seem to fit the template, it's either because there's money or sex involved, they're doing what they have to do to win politically, they're taking that position because they refuse to be on the same side as conservatives, or there's something going on you don't know about and it's not really an exception.

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The old gray lady has some explaining to do: "Officials at the New York Times have admitted a liberal activist group was permitted to pay half the rate it should have for a provocative ad condemning U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus. The MoveOn ad, which cast Petraeus as "General Betray Us" and attacked his truthfulness, ran on the same day the commander made a highly anticipated appearance before Congress. But since the liberal group paid the standby rate of $64,575 for the full-page ad, it should not have been guaranteed to run on Sept. 10, the day Petraeus warned Congress against a rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Times personnel said. "We made a mistake," Catherine Mathis, vice president of corporate communications for The Times, told the newspaper's public editor. Mathis said an advertising representative left the liberal group with the understanding that the ad would run that Monday even though they had been charged the standby rate. The group should have paid $142,083 to ensure placement that day".

Hillary has deserted the troops: "With her refusal to denounce the far-left MoveOn.org for its smear of our top commander in Iraq, Clinton has taken another big step away from the center of American politics. On the most important issue of our times - Iraq and the fight against Islamic terrorism - the Democratic presidential front-runner has thrown her lot in with the radicals, kooks and nuts that litter the wackadoo wing. And she has turned her back on our soldiers and their leaders during wartime. This is not the first time she has gone AWOL on the military. Back in May, Clinton voted to cut off all funds for the war. That she was in a small minority then was an alarming indication of how far she was willing to go to placate the anti-war base of the party. It was not, we know now, an aberration".

Horowitz on Columbia and the 'Persian Hitler': "David Horowitz can think of a lot of reasons why Columbia University shouldn't invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak there Monday: "Not to mention he's a Nazi. Not to mention he wants to kill all the Jews -- I take that personally." The Ahmadinejad speech -- which roiled the blogosphere this week -- is also personal for Horowitz because he's an alumnus of Columbia. The university's Web site listing of "notable alumni" describes him as a "neo-conservative movement founder." It would be more accurate to describe Horowitz as a "red diaper baby" (his parents were Communist Party members)... In a telephone interview Friday, Horowitz called Ahmadinejad "the Persian Hitler." It's not hard to see why, given this video of the Iranian president leading a crowd in chanting "Death to Israel".... Columbia President Lee Bollinger has defended the Ahmadinejad speech as "robust debate ... on global issues." Horowitz isn't buying that argument."

Swing districts not swinging to Dems: "Conventional wisdom dictates that Democratic voters are thrilled with their choices for president, bursting at the seams to rally behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or whoever gets the party's nod next year. A recent survey by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, however, showed Clinton and Obama trailing former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) in the 31 Democratic-held House districts regarded as most imperiled in 2008, and even potentially serving as a drag on those lawmakers' reelection chances. The poll was conducted in August but has not been previously reported. It paints a "sobering picture" for Democrats, according to a memo by Lake and Daniel Gotoff that accompanies the poll report".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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 idiosyncratic "reasoning" from a U.S. court

The meat was predominantly exported (mainly to Europe) but the court decided that stopping the process "does not significantly interfere with interstate or foreign commerce"! Go figure

A FEDERAL appellate court panel has upheld the constitutionality of an Illinois law that prohibits the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The ruling effectively shuts down a DeKalb horse-slaughtering plant, the last facility of its kind in the country. Cavel International, Inc., a Belgium-based company that operates the plant, kills horses and ships meat overseas for human consumption.

Cavel had asked the court to invalidate a statute signed into law last May that prohibited the slaughter of horses for human consumption and the possession, import or export of horse meat for human consumption. Cavel also argued the state law discriminates against foreign commerce.

The appellate panel expressed some reluctance in reaching its decision, saying in its written opinion that "... we are not entirely happy about having to uphold the Illinois statute". But it concluded that the law does not improperly discriminate and does not significantly interfere with interstate or foreign commerce.

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Bush made the world hate America so much that McDonald's is booming: "AP reported that sales at McDonald's have been surprisingly buoyant overseas: "Anti-Americanism over the Iraq war hasn't eaten into global sales, either, despite the golden arches' close association with Uncle Sam abroad. The increase was 12.4% in its Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa restaurants and a noteworthy 6.1% in Europe, where the turnaround didn't take hold until recently. "Consumers' attention span is pretty short," said Lakshman Krishnamurthi, a marketing professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "As long as you have a good product that people like, people are going to go and eat it."

1200 Iraqis Line Up For Hours To Fight al-Qaeda: "Who would have predicted in October of 2001, as the fires of the WTC raged under a mountain of rubble and debris, that we would witness Iraqis lining up for hours in the heat, standing in line for their opportunity to sign up to fight and destroy al-Qaeda. No one in their wildest dreams would have given credence to that idea, yet here we are in September 2007, 6 years after that fateful day, and we have hours long lines in Iraq queuing up for a chance to fight Bloody Bin Laden's thugs"

Israel collects samples of Nork nuke material during raid: "Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say. They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons."

Israel warns Syria: "Israeli officials vowed to wipe Syria off the map if it is attacked with chemical weapons like one that reportedly exploded in July at a secret Syrian base staffed with Iranian engineers. Politicians in Israel said yesterday they were not picking a fight with their neighbor, but pledged to forcefully retaliate if chemical warheads come screaming across its shared border. "We will not attack them first. But if they ever use these weapons against Israel, then we must be clear - it will be the end of this evil and brutal dictatorship," Yuval Steinitz, a right-wing member of the Israeli parliament, told the Daily News yesterday. Sparking shock waves across the Middle East was a report in Jane's Defence Weekly about an accidental explosion at a top secret Syrian base in July. Citing Syrian intelligence sources, the report claimed a team of Iranian and Syrian engineers were killed July 26 while trying to arm a Scud-C missile with a mustard gas warhead".



NY: Spitzer spits at the law: "Gov. Spitzer announced yesterday that illegal immigrants will get driver's licenses - but at a cost to legal citizens because they'll now be useless as airport ID. Spitzer said the state would no longer require a Social Security number or proof that a person is not eligible for such a number in order to qualify for a driver's license. That change clashes with the 2005 REAL ID law passed by Congress that states require, among other things, a Social Security number in order to get a license. States have until December 2009 to be in compliance. States that fail to meet the standards will lose their certification by the Department of Homeland Security, meaning that driver's licenses in those states will no longer be valid for air travel, entry to federal facilities and for tax purposes".

Batty Britain again: "A radical Muslim cleric banned from his local mosque was allowed to work as a hospital chaplain, according to a BBC London investigation. Usman Ali has been banned from his local mosque in Woolwich, London, after trustees won a court injunction. But the ex-member of banned group Al Muha-ji-roun led prayers for NHS staff at Woolwich's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Hospital staff said they had suspended Mr Ali two days ago after concerns were raised by the police. The 30-year-old British born preacher was banned for life from entering his local mosque in Woolwich after trustees won a county court injunction against him in January. It was an unprecedented step and cost the mosque 30,000 pounds. BBC London has seen the judge's order on the case and found that Ali had shown a video to children in the mosque containing clips of planes flying into the world trade centre during which he chanted "God is great". Mosque trustees said they warned hospital officials about Mr Ali months ago but nothing was done".

Stupid "Animal Rights" ban opposed (Australia has millions of wild kangaroos): "Miro Odich, who has owned the Soccer Locker store in Fair Oaks for nearly three decades, says without hesitation that nothing is better than shoes made from kangaroo leather. "They are the best in the world," Odich said. "They're so soft and stretchy and mold to your foot, so you feel the ball. Calf leather is much thicker and rougher." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself a well-known aficionado of footwear made from unusual animal skins, must decide by mid-October whether retailers such as Odich can sell soccer shoes made from the Australian marsupial."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Both Leftism and Islamism are outlets for rage

Young people who are enraged tend to be drawn into delinquency, drug and alcohol use, and criminality, all as ways to manage and discharge their intolerable internal states. Imagine how awful it is to feel that everyone has disappointed and failed you; imagine the rage of children who feel betrayed and let down over and over again. Such young people are also drawn to ideologies which explicitly support their need to externalize:

I am enraged; it is intolerable to know that my rage stems from my own failures and the failures of those people who have formed the nidus of my internal object world [usually parents]; my failures must be caused by someone else and their behavior [Jews, Americans] justifies this rage I cannot get rid of; now I have a place to discharge and rid myself of this rage.

In reality, since the primary source of the rage is internal, such discharge only works temporarily, necessitating new situations in which to justify and discharge the renewed built-up rage.

Both Marxism and Islamism, with their emphasis on Utopian goals which promise to end disappointment and deprivation while directing condoned rage against the external world of oppressors, share this structure. They facilitate defensive externalization, allow for the free expression of primitive rage, and promise a Utopian consummation, either in an earthly paradise where all desires, material and sexual, can be achieved, or in the heavenly Paradise where the 72 virgins await. This is the attraction of Islam and Marxism to so many disaffected young people.

In college, I dabbled in radical politics. I went to many anti-war demonstrations as a teenager. I enjoyed the frisson of rebellion that the Psychedelic 60s was shrouded within, yet a single incident awoke me to the reality that I would never be a good Marxist. I had been intrigued by Trotsky, the idea of constant revolution was fascinating to someone who wished to resist falling into the predicted and predictable path I feared I was on. On campus was a well established group of young Trotskyites, the Young Socialist Alliance. They were involved in various protests, which were always enjoyable, not least for the presence of many nubile, young radical women who approved of radical young men. One fateful day I stopped by the YSA table to find out more about them. I made a joking reference to the previous weekend's demonstration and discovered that the leader of the group was a young man who was incredibly humorless. He proceeded to lecture me (hectored me, perhaps) with a diatribe on how much commitment was necessary for the revolution to succeed and how there was no room for humor in the revolution; this was deadly serious business fighting the oppressors and jokes had no place in it.

I thought he was a complete jerk; I also thought he was a very dangerous jerk. This was the kind of person who would have no trouble condemning someone for thought crimes. If that was the kind of person who was attracted to Marxism, perhaps I wasn't as much of a radical as I fancied.

Years later I can still recall him, with a Che Guevara beard, intense eyes, and a complete lack of humor or humanity. Any revolution that condemned humor was not a revolution for me.

Rage at a cruel and withholding universe (often a derivative of infantile frustration) is difficult to tolerate. Most of us, with good-enough parenting, come to temper our infantile frustrations (which have roots in our infantile grandiosity which is so painful to give up) by using our loving ties to our parents to metabolize the rage which would otherwise be so destructive. Those unfortunates who cannot do so via love are left enraged and searching for ways to offload the rage to an external victim. Ideologies that enable such offloading attract the angry and the failed and it is through this pathway that Marx (the angry, anti-Semitic hater of religion) and the Islamists (descended from Qutb, the angry, anti-Semitic hater of secularism) find their true identity.

Source

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Wal-Mart Unveils Employee Health-Care Overhaul-But Haters Still Unsatisfied: "Wal-Mart, long criticized for its healthcare coverage, unveiled a broad plan this week that is intended to cut employee costs, expand coverage and offer workers thousands of cheap prescription drugs. Starting next year, Wal-Mart"s insurance will look a lot like that offered by many other American companies, but with some twists that even longtime critics described as innovative. Independent experts praised several features of the plan and said it could represent a turning point for the retailer, the NY Times reports. "On face value, this looks like a very significant change and improvement," said Ron Pollack, president of Families USA, a healthcare advocacy group in Washington that has been critical of Wal-Mart. But Wal-Mart Watch, a group long critical of the company, said "these plans are still unaffordable due to low wages or inaccessible due to waiting periods," according to the Times report by Michael Barbaro. The plans with the lowest premiums would still charge annual deductibles as high as $2,000-typical for American corporate health plans, but perhaps steep for Wal-Mart employees, many of whom work part time and earn less than $20,000 a year. And the company"s plans have other limitations, including waiting periods as long as a year for new employees. But industry analysts said the program represented an upgrade for the 636,000 employees who already receive health insurance through Wal-Mart. They said it could force the company"s discount-retailing competitors to offer more generous plans for their own workers".

Army wants 10,000 new armored vehicles: "The Army has decided to ask for 10,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles to counter the threat of makeshift bombs in Iraq, according to one of the program's top congressional supporters. The new request is nearly four times the 2,700 vehicles, known as MRAPs, that the Army had sought. That's still not enough, said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who was briefed on the change by the Defense Department. Biden cited a request this year for 17,770 of the vehicles for the Army by Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 military commander in Iraq."

Poor don't fret about income inequality: "Many analysts think society is happier when inequalities fall and unhappier when inequalities rise. The truth is more complex. In an economic recession, profits fall much faster than wages, so equality improves. But the poor don't enjoy recessions, because they don't want to lose their jobs. They prefer an economic boom, when profits rise faster than wages, even though inequalities also increase. In India, states like Bihar and Orissa are dirt poor while Maharashtra and Goa are rich. But while economists fret about the disparity, the poor people of Bihar and Orissa don't. They know their travails are caused not by rich people in other states but by local landlords, mobsters and politicians. Poor people worry about inequality when the local dominant classes keep them down. But they have no wish to impoverish industrialists in rich states; they merely want to become rich themselves. Booming stock markets bring jobs and investment, so poor people welcome them."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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The Leftist false gospel of self-esteem

"Blessed are the meek" certainly does not get a mention

One of the big pieces of the psychobabble industry is the promotion of "self esteem" at the expense of self control and personal responsibility. But, contrary to popular myth, self esteem is not the holy grail of psychological health. In fact, it is not necessarily even good for you, and most bullies, tyrants and other dysfunctional people fairly ooze self esteem.

Most people confuse "self-esteem" with a "sense of self". It is the latter--not the former, that is so often screwed up in the angry, violent, grandiose, and generally narcissistic people in the world. If you have a healthy "sense of self", you are likely to have a healthy self-esteem; and a healthy self-esteem is not the same at all as a high self-esteem.

The psychological defect that leads to so many problems for people in their lives is a defective or distorted sense of one's SELF. The excessive self-esteem you see in a bully comes from a distortion of reality that person develops with regard to their self. It used to be widely believed that low self-esteem was a cause of violence, but in reality, violent individuals, groups and nations happen to think very well of themselves. Do you really suppose that individuals like Ahmadinejad or the Iranian mullahs suffer from poor self-esteem? Do you think bullies like Saddam or thugs like Zawahiri had "fragile" egos as they made their way through life? And that they were simply misunderstood or had unhappy childhoods and that is what made them so bad? If only social conditions be improved and poverty eliminated then the world would not see the development of such people--or so goes the thinking, anyway.

I'm afraid not. The reality is that human nature is what it is whether you are rich or poor; or what color your skin happens to be; and without regard for the particular political structure you live in. Exaggerated self-esteem that is not based on personal achievement or responsibility is one of the hallmarks of a pathological narcissist or psychopath.

The pop-psychology that promulgated the widespread belief that if you nurture kid's self-esteem neglected to mention that if the sense of self was already damaged, all the social engineers would manage to do was to create a narcissistic monster. That is why our society is filled with the pursuit of unhealthy narcissistic gratification. In this new century, that narcissism seems to be morphing into an even more malignant sociopathy that pervades society and impacts almost all our social, political, and educational institutions.

Our cultural focus on enhancing "self-esteem" has resulted in the near-worship of emotions and feelings at the expense of reason and thought; on emphasizing "root causes" and victimhood, instead of demanding that behavior be civilized and that individuals exert self-discipline and self-control--no matter what they are "feeling".

Source. See also here. The Christian teaching is here: Matthew 5:3-5; 18:4; 23:8-12.

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The paradox of moral equivalence: "I used to believe that the world essentially divided into two types of people: those who were broadly tolerant, and those who felt threatened by differences. If only the former ruled the earth, I reasoned, the world might know some measure of peace. But there was a problem with my theory, and it was never clearer than in a conversation I had with a Pakistani friend who told me that he loathed people like George Bush who insisted on dividing the world into "us" and "them". My friend did not realise that he was in fact falling straight into the camp of people he loathed. This is a political version of a famous paradox formulated by Bertrand Russell. The stronger you insist on the necessity of tolerance, the more intolerant you become toward those who disagree. The moral lesson is that there is no such thing as unqualified tolerance; ultimately, one must be able to expound intolerance of certain ideologies without surrendering the moral high ground normally linked to tolerance."

French revolution? "Unveiling his domestic reform agenda in Paris Tuesday, Nicolas Sarkozy called for "a new social contract" for France. His proposed revision of French socialist tradition going back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau is nothing short of revolutionary. His ability to deliver will make or break his presidency. True to character, Mr. Sarkozy came out swinging. The new President declared that France's generous welfare state is "unjust" and "financially untenable," "discourages work and job creation," and "fails to bring equal opportunity." The result: France's jobless rate is the euro zone's highest. The President wants "a new social contract founded on work, merit and equal opportunity." He promised to loosen restrictions on working hours and toughen up requirements for jobless benefits, to ease hiring and firing rules and reduce incentives to retire early".

The usual military equipment bungling: "After six years at war, some Army National Guard units are still struggling with less than half the equipment they need to do their jobs at home, the top Guard general said Wednesday. He said it will take an extra $13 billion over the next five years to get them 90 percent of the gear they need. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard, said that while Guard units heading to Iraq and Afghanistan have all the necessary equipment, all units at home are short at least 30 percent of the equipment they need."

Senate rejects measure attempting to regulate length of combat tours in Iraq: " Democrats' efforts to challenge President Bush's Iraq policies were dealt a demoralizing blow Wednesday in the Senate after they failed to scrape together enough support to guarantee troops more time at home. The 56-44 vote - four short of reaching the 60 needed to advance - all but assured that Democrats would be unable to muster the support needed to pass tough anti-war legislation by year's end. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was seen as the Democrats' best shot because of its pro-military premise".

Wes Clark: Petraeus told the truth: "Gen. Wes Clark was asked by Matt Stoller, a lefty blogger, about MoveOn's Betray Us ad. Clark said it was a big mistake. Clark also said Gen. Dave Petraeus told the truth. The ad was a big mistake, Clark said, "because it distracted attention from focusing on the failures of the policy and let the other side play a game of personal attack again and you know sort of outrage at that. That's a mistake. It distracted us from the dialogue we needed." Later, Clark said: "I'd say it was a mistake tactically. But I also, I know Dave Petraeus, and he's not gonna say something he thinks is incorrect, he's not gonna lie... Gen. Clark is the left's military man. Lefties might want to listen to him."

Victimhood: "In the quasi-religious cult of victimhood that is part of today's leftist dogma, "victimhood" has been identified as the key quality deserving of attention and pity. This is in part because many on the political left have an intense narcissistic need to see themselves as "champions of the oppressed", hence the constant need to find and maintain an oppressed class of people to champion. But it also dovetails nicely into the the Marxist dialectic that underlies that ideology. The world is divided up into two groups, you see: the oppressors (i.e., white, male,heterosexual, Republican, Americans or Israelis) and the oppressed (everyone else)."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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The political psychopaths of the Left

Shared hates are all that matter to them

Iran relies on the denialists and psychopaths in free nations for whom blatant antisemitism, Holocaust denial and promises of `We will finish what Hitler started,' are not enough to disqualify those purveyors of hate and bigotry from being portrayed as `helpless victims,' or `misunderstood.' In fact, all that is necessary for these moral degenerates to remain worthy of leftist love is to adopt an anti American, anti Israel and anti Semitic postures and all will be forgiven. The persecution and oppression of their own populations, the denigrations of women and children and the support of terror can all be overlooked and forgiven as long as the hate is `correctly' focused.

When all is said and done, that is why the left cares little for the Darfurese. As long as the Bashir government and Arab Janjaweed are sufficiently anti American and anti democracy, the butcher, rape and slaughter can continue. The two million dead in Sudan over the last two decades are irrelevant.

When Israel was founded in 1948, that nation was the darling of the left. Many of that country's founders were communists and socialists (that is why the first nation to cast an affirmative ballot in the UN vote for the partition of Palestine was the Soviet Union. They fully expected that Israel would be an important Soviet asset in the Middle East). When the rubber met the road however, the Israelis proved that once given a choice, people will always choose freedom over tyranny. The left was stung and hasn't gotten over their bitter disappointment. Leftist support for Israel eroded and became real hate for the Jewish state that dared embrace real democratic values. This lesson hasn't been lost by the Palestinians. Were they to adopt a truly democratic and pluralistic ideology, the left would drop them in a minute.

Much more here

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This has got to be disruptive to the Left

Bloggers have performed an invaluable function since their emergence in the media world a few years ago. Whether it is uncovering the forgery of the RatherGate documents, the fauxtography that is propaganda in the service of terrorists, revealing and publicizing the odious practice of earmarks, the bias that has corrupted the media-the quest for truth is what has driven the best of the bloggers.

Now the Washington Post joins the campaign: today the paper starts a new feature-The FactChecker, which will be focused on examining the veracity of claims made by politicians. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as the opprobrium formerly heaped on the new media practitioners (clad in pajamas, hairy knuckles, anti-social nerds, zealots-take your pick) is transformed into unintended praise.

A nod might also go to the Fact Check.Org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, that has focused on reducing the level of deception and confusion in American politics.

Regardless, the new feature by the Washington Post is another example of the old media catching up with the new media. The Post is the finest general interest newspaper in America -- and though it leans liberal, it has not been turned into a propaganda sheet as has the New York Times. Whether the The FactChecker becomes a cudgle against only Republicans remains to be seen, but given the Post's generally good reputation for non-biased twisting of the news, we can look forward to some insightful commentary..

Source

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Note the last line of the following news item!: "A Queens teen was arrested yesterday after placing fliers in his teachers' mailboxes asking them to convert to Islam - then made threats once he was caught, authorities said. Yaseen Chowdhury, 17, of Woodside, wrote the fliers himself and put them in the mailboxes at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, sources said. hen confronted there about the fliers, he made unspecified verbal threats, according to the sources. Chowdhury was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime. A Department of Education spokesman did not return a call seeking comment. The student's religion was not immediately known."

New WMD threat: "The Jerusalem Post notes that, in addition to the nuclear facility that was targeted by Israel and the US the other day, Syria also has a confirmed and very active chemical weapons missile production program, being run in conjunction with Iran: Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Defence Weekly report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria. According to the report.the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas."

Poisonous Leftist media: "Days after an al-Qaida-linked group released a video showing the body of a Luke Air Force Base fighter pilot killed in Iraq last year, his widow lashed out at the national media, accusing it of politicizing and using the images to erode public support for the war. Ginger Gilbert, making her first public comments since the video emerged last week, said Tuesday that she couldn't remain silent after watching media coverage of a "disturbing video" of the corpse, identification card and crash site of her husband, Maj. Troy Gilbert. "When media chooses to use Troy's plane crash as a political catalyst to generate anti-war sentiment, it only serves to degrade the moral integrity my husband possessed and the morale of those still selflessly serving," Gilbert said at news conference"

Empty-headed Hollywood again: "At the Emmy awards, Sally Field said: Miss Field said: "If mothers ruled the, ruled the world, there would be no [G-word] wars in the first place." Many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq are moms. How does Miss Field explain that? She cannot. All moms are not like her any more than all dads are like me. In her column this week, Michelle Malkin wrote, "Motherhood and peace-making are not synonymous. Motherhood requires ferocity, the will and resolve to protect one's own children at all costs, and a life-long commitment to sacrifice for a family's betterment and survival. Conflict avoidance is incompatible with good mothering."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Thank goodness for clueless Lefties

Life without them would be so much less fun.... Post below lifted from Charlie Foxtrot



Since the definition of 'liberty' is 'freedom', if you sacrifice the former for the latter.....you end up right back where you started. Doh! Gotta love where the public schools are taking this country.... Maybe if he had paid more attention in American History class....if he was taught it that is...

Of course, as is pointed out by Mark Hemmingway (Hat Tip on the picture), the actual quote that this brainiac is trying to publicize is “Those who would sacrifice liberty for SECURITY deserve neither”, originally attributed to one of those arrogant dead white guys.

As Hemmingway's photo-essay demonstrates, attending a leftist rally can provide more humorous moments than most comedies coming out of Hollywood nowadays.

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More from Brookes News

Does Australia' s manufacturing decline hold a lesson for the US economy?: Australian manufacturing is now about 11 per cent of GDP, the lowest ratio in the OECD. The US economy has experienced a similar trend. However, the economic commentariat says there is nothing to worry about. But what if they are wrong? This article presents an alternative view
The US dollar v. the Chinese yuan: there' s more than meets the eye: Monetary policy has been slowly tightening in the US while rapidly expanding in China. This means that the dollar could stabilize while the yuan continues to inflate. The US could then find itself in a position where the yuan starts falling against the dollar
Why Consumer-led recoveries can be bad for economies: If the malinvestments are severe and price margins remain compressed then interest rate cuts might prove ineffectual in the short-term in bringing about an economic recovery
Iraq as Qaeda bait: The left thinks Iraq is a killing field for Americans. Actually, it is a killing field for our enemies, at a very great but vitally important sacrifice. Even malicious liberals are encouraging the enemy to go to Iraq to die. Bush was absolutely right to tell them to ' bring it on'
Being a Democrat means never having to say you' re sorry: For decades the Democrat Party has been plagued with scandals involving everything from bribery, sex, fraud, manslaughter, voting fraud and God knows what else. Yet the denizens of the media have the gall to tell their readers that the GOP is the ' Party of Corruption'
Liberalism: a toxic philosophy: Liberalism has morphed from its classic definition of favoring personal liberty and small government into a philosophy where government becomes the omnipotent force in everyone's life
The left's hierarchy of hatred: Democrats should give careful consideration as to where organizations like MoveOn.org, and its chief supporter, the anti-American George Soros, are taking them, not to mention the other lefty billionaires who funded Moveon's foul ad accusing General Petraeus of treason

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GM's Corner has a roundup of the psych bloggers.

A good video here about Jimmy Carter's war on the Jews.

That fountainhead of journalistic integrity and courage, Dan Rather, has done it again -- once again peddling faked "truth". For a comment on his attack on Boeing, see here

Palestinian Authority celebrates 9/11: "On the sixth anniversary of 9/11, the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority continued its tradition of celebrating the attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and mock American suffering."

Rent a congressman: "You bought Google at $100 and 3 years later is nearing $600 a share? Big deal. Microsoft has gone up 28-fold over the last 20 years? Yawn. You want to make the big bucks? Rent a congressman. Your return on your investment can be as high as $75 for every dollar invested. Just ask the good folks at PMA Group, a lobbying firm. They sank $1,333,074 into the campaigns last year of 3 Democratic members of the House defense appropriations subcommittee and walked away with $100.5 million in defense earmarks for PMA clients, Roll Call reported. That means for every buck they spent, their clients got back $75.39. In less than 1 year."

Greenspan clarifies Iraq war, oil link: "Clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was "essential" to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published on Monday. Greenspan, who wrote in his memoir that "the Iraq War is largely about oil," said in a Washington Post interview that while securing global oil supplies was "not the administration's motive," he had presented the White House before the 2003 invasion with the case for why removing the then-Iraqi leader was important for the global economy. "I was not saying that that's the administration's motive," Greenspan said in the interview conducted on Saturday. "I'm just saying that if somebody asked me, 'Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?' I would say it was essential."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Why Fred Thompson?

Nobody is more surprised to see former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson in the 2008 race for the White House than Fred Thompson himself. At age 64, with a successful acting career, a stable financial future, a second chance at family life, a bright beautiful young wife and two small children, running for President of the United States was likely not on his list of things to do.

That's before the conservative core of the Republican Party drafted him. Fed up with out of control federal spending, deteriorating individual liberties, a lack-luster national defense and the growing tolerance for leftist notions exhibited by the current crop of "moderates" busy running their GOP into the ground, conservatives passed on all RNC panderers and drafted their own presidential candidate.

Why Fred Thompson? I could run down the list of conservative votes that make up his two term senate career, but others have already done that. I could talk about his down home southern charm, his good ole boy nature, his face and name recognition as a result of a life filled with personal accomplishments or even talk about those red pickup truck campaign stops reminiscent of much simpler days. But you already know these things.

Unlike all other candidates, it's hard to find someone with anything bad to say about Thompson, someone besides his political challengers of course. In a fever to find trash on Thompson somewhere, the Democrat war room tracked down every girl he ever dated between his two marriages, looking for dirt. When every woman who ever knew Thompson had only praise for what a kind, gentle natured southern gentleman he really is, Democrats knew they had a real problem on their hands. Even his ex's still like him? Never seen that before.

All of these reasons are true and valid. They all mean something. But there is an even bigger reason why Fred Thompson is the likely winner in 2008, a reason few political analysts can comprehend.

On the campaign trail this week, Thompson was asked why he was not participating in the Values Voter debate in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. In typical Thompson form, he responded, "Debates are important, but let's don't let the tail wag the dog here. Standing up there 10 in a row, you know, like a bunch of seals waiting for someone to throw you the next fish is not necessarily the best way to impart your information to the American people," Thompson said. "I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish. I just don't want to do it all the time."

And that's why Fred Thompson could be the right man with the right stuff for 2008!

Atop the list of many disappointments in our federal government today is the clear message that nobody in Washington DC has the least bit of common sense or honesty about them. Okay, let's say a few do, but so few that they aren't worth counting. Modern politicians are just career politicians. They aren't the pillars of our communities anymore and I don't care which political party you're trying to blindly defend.

Washington is full of career liars and every American knows it. Now, the average American voter can not always detect a lie when it's told by a really good liar and let's face it, our nation's best liars aren't reading scripts in Hollywood, our village idiots are. Our best liars are reading campaign cue cards in Washington DC.

The people may not always catch the lie as it's told by the best liars in the business. But Americans inherently know the truth when they see it or hear it and that's what they seem to like about Fred Thompson.

There isn't a single American who wouldn't describe modern campaign debates the same way Fred did, or feel about them just as he does, as a result. But what politician has the nerve to say it out loud for God and the whole world to hear? Besides Thompson I mean. I was starting to wonder if I was the only American who noticed what a ridiculous scam the alphabet network debates had become.

Much more here

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Brookes News Update

The US economy: is a recession on the way?: A number of economists are predicting an imminent recession. But one must be cautious about such predictions. One should not forget that it is manufacturing that first feels the impact of a recession - even when money is not particularly tight. So never underestimate the power of money
Central banks panic as credit crunch looms: It looks like central banks are panicking again as they pour more liquidity (funny money) into their respective banking systems. I don't know how long this policy of fuelling inflation can continue, but sooner or later the party is going to be over
Greens wage war against the car: Eventually every green attacks capitalism - and the car is a triumphant monument to the success of capitalism in serving the masses. Is this why cars cause our social engineers, would-planners and environmentalists such anguish?
Guardian' journalists defend murder and mass torture: Leftwing journalists from the equally leftwing Guardian defend the sadistic Che Guevara
The Never-Never Declaration - An APEC reality check: The APEC Declaration was a clear signal that most APEC nations are not going to swallow the pseudo-science and economic poison being peddled by Dark Greens from yesterday's states like Europe and New Zealand
Iraq war and Mike Steketee: another lying journalist: Mike Steketee, a Murdoch journalist, seems to be praying for a terrorist victory in Iraq. This man is so far left in his hatred of President Bush that he blames him for the mad mullahs in Iraq and accuses him 'spawning more terrorism`. The thought that terrorists might terrorism be responsible for terrorism was apparently too awful for him to contemplate
It's them vs. us. Everywhere!: There was a time when everyone knew who the enemy was. My father and uncles fought in World War II and they knew who the bad guys were. They also knew that they, as individuals, and we, as a nation, had to sacrifice many things and many comforts in order to do what had to be done to end that savage world war
I don't dislike Democrats, I oppose the progressive-left - The Fifth Column: Most Progressive-Democrats are Green and even Socialist or Communist, most are not. Where mainstream Democrats and Republicans are concerned, we, as thoughtful Americans, have much in common.
Tariff-costs, victims and jobs: Having lost the intellectual battle against free trade the likes of Steketee have now turned to what they think is the human cost of lowering tariffs

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Another Federal Court that gets it: "Saying its role was not to criticize US policy towards Israel, an American federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit on Monday charging that Caterpillar bulldozers aided killing and torture in the Palestinian territories. Relatives of 16 Palestinians and one American killed or injured by Israeli demolitions sued the heavy construction machine manufacturer. They alleged that by selling bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes, Caterpillar was responsible for war crimes, cruel and inhumane punishment and other violations. The US government paid for the bulldozers, which were transferred to the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF sometimes uses engineering vehicles in operations aimed at curbing Palestinian militant activity. A lower court dismissed the suit and the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals backed that decision, saying that to render a judgment on the matter would interfere with American foreign policy."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Victorian capitalism unfairly maligned

The plight of child labourers in Victorian Britain is not usually considered to have been a happy one. Writers such as Charles Dickens painted a grim picture of the hardships suffered by young people in the mills, factories and workhouses of the Industrial Revolution. But an official report into the treatment of working children in the 1840s, made available online yesterday for the first time, suggests the situation was not so bad after all.

The frank accounts emerged in interviews with dozens of youngsters conducted for the Children's Employment Commission. The commission was set up by Lord Ashley in 1840 to support his campaign for reducing the working hours of women and children.

Surprisingly, a number of the children interviewed did not complain about their lot -- even though they were questioned away from their workplace and the scrutinising eyes of their employers.

Sub-commissioner Frederick Roper noted in his 1841 investigation of pre-independence Dublin's pin-making establishments: "Notwithstanding their evident poverty ... there is in their countenances an appearance of good health and much cheerfulness."

A report on workers at a factory in Belfast found a 14-year-old boy who earned four shillings a week "would rather be doing something better ... but does not dislike his current employment". The report concluded: "I find all in this factory able to read, and nearly all to write. They are orderly, appear to be well-behaved, and to be very contented."

Source

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Cartoonist to al-Qaeda: Bite me: "I have not been following the latest controversy closely but Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks pissed off al-Qaeda by drawing Mohammed as a dog. Hey, change it to a cross, put it in a urinal and you can get a grant from the U.S. government. This week's No. 1 in al-Qaeda in Iraq placed a 50,000 pounds bounty on his head. The offer is 75,000 if his throat is cut. Vilks told the Times of London: "I suppose that this makes my art project a bit more serious. It is also good to know how much one is worth." Vilks also said: "We must not give in. I'm starting to grow old. I could die at any time - it's not a catastrophe." Where is the outrage from Amnesty International over the throat-cutting? The ACLU? The Democratic Party? Oh wait, the Democrats cannot even stand up to its suicidal wing at Move On. Pretty sad when a Swedish cartoonist shows more spine than half our Senate."

Iraqi Army stops suicide bomber: "Some good news from the Multi-National Force in Mosul: Iraqi soldiers stopped a suicide bomber. They shouted at the suspect, fired warning shots and watched as he blew himself up. Thanks for playing. Enjoy the 72 virgins. Also Iraqi Security Forces raided an IED factory and seized some black market oil tankers, fully loaded. It is pathetic that 4 years after the war, the Iraqis finally are securing their own land. I thought when we handed over the reins of the government to them on June 28, 2004, that they would step up. But what is more pathetic is that you are reading this as an Army press release on a blog. Shouldn't AP or AFP or Reuters be following this?"

Empty vessel gets antisemitic adviser: "Concerns have been raised among Israel supporters following the appointment of a controversial veteran political advisor by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Last week, Obama introduced Zbigniew Brzezinski as "one of our most outstanding thinkers" during a policy speech on the Iraq war. Brzezinski, selected by Obama to advise him on foreign policy affairs, has taken a highly critical stance towards Israel in the past, and has defended an academic attack on the American Jewish lobby which has been branded by some as being anti-Semitic. He has previously served as a national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter." [Brzezinski is a Pole and antisemitism seems to be endemic in Poland]

Saudi cleric denounces bin Laden: "In a major blow to the ideology of Osama Bin Laden and his followers in the Kingdom, Sheikh Salman ibn Fahad Al-Oudah, a popular Saudi religious scholar, has criticized the way in which Bin Laden has ruined Islam's global image. "We as scholars of Islam reject what Osama does," Al-Oudah wrote in an open letter posted on his website www.islamtoday.com. Al-Oudah also questioned the validity of Al-Qaeda using violence. "What have we gained from the destruction of a whole country such as Iraq and Afghanistan?" Al-Oudah said, adding that these wars have led to civil wars in the region. "Who benefits from turning countries like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Morocco into insecure places?" he asked. Many experts considered the letter as a major setback to Al-Qaeda's ideology, as it comes from an influential Saudi scholar, who is not part of the official religious establishment."

Masochistic lefties: "As the unidentified woman is pushed away by a riot-gear protected officer, there is a big smile in her face. She is delighted to be escorted away. Gives her the victim status. Some people on the left are so screwed up that the only way they validate themselves is by getting arrested. It is weird. But that was my take on the photo that accompanied today's story in the New York Times, "Antiwar Protest Ends With Dozens of Arrests." By "dozens," the Times means 189. The left gets all sorts of discounts from the Times. This "protest" is an extension of some anti-authoritarianism that holds that all crinminals are victims, that all cops are pigs and all laws are unconstitutional. Only an affluent society can afford to have such self-indulgent anarchists."

John Kerry has renamed his yacht: "If you thought Scaramouche was a pretentious name for Sen. John Forbes Kerry to give his 42-foot Nantucket gigolo boat, he's gone and topped himself. Liveshot has scuttled the name Scaramouche and rechristened it . . . Let It Be... The Scaramouche, a Hinckley power boat that gets less than one mile per gallon of fuel, was just another boytoy toy Mama T bought him in 2002 with money from her first husband's trust fund. Being John Kerry, he probably decided on the name Scaramouche without doing any research beyond hearing the Queen tune on an oldies radio station. Later on, everybody checked out the real definition of Scaramouche. Here's one from "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable": "A stock character in Italian farce. . . . A braggart and a fool, very valiant in words, but a poltroon." From "Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia": "A braggart soldier." Well, Liveshot, if the Docksider fits. . ."

Theory trumps reality for the Left: "The Left today mostly despise real individuals, especially successful ones. They prefer fancy dress faux rebels who attack easy targets that won't hit back. They seem to like individuality as long as it's approved by the group. Sadly for the saviours of the working class, real individuals surprizingly don't have to be pre-proscribed Central Casting clones and irritating twerps. Frankly, the Leftist idea of diversity mostly works out to be the opposite of diversity.... But aye, there's the rub, boyo. They're enchanted with a theory, not reality."

There is a big new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly incorrect themes of race and IQ.

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