Update on Sweden

Though there certainly are positive as well as negative lessons to be learned from Sweden, one should be wary of those who claim causal relationships between Sweden's welfare state and its historic economic achievements. The parts of the welfare state that work the best today are the parts that have been reformed, where competition and private alternatives are allowed.

School vouchers, for example, were introduced more than 15 years ago in Sweden. This reform has allowed children to choose a privately run school if they want to, paid for by taxes. Recent research shows not only that independent schools produce the best results but that school choice andthe existence of independent schools has improved overall efficiency and effectiveness in the entire school system.

American documentary filmmaker Michael Moore praises the Swedish healthcare system in his movie Sicko. But he is worried that the new Swedish Government will destroy this paragon of public health funding, as he sees it, by letting in private alternatives. In fact, Sweden has had private alternatives within the healthcare system for 15 to 20 years. That is no big deal for Swedes, at least not as long as the private alternatives don't constitute too large a share of the market. The debate is on the financial side. Should people be empowered to buy private insurance?

There is also a debate whether big emergency hospitals should be allowed to be run privately (still with funding from the government) and if private hospitals should be allowed to make a profit. Hardly anyone other than Moore is totally against privately run health care.

While the quality of healthcare services is pretty good in Sweden, productivity is extremely low because there is too little competition. In 1975 an average doctor met nine patients a day. Today it is down to four. People have to wait for months or years to get basic surgery, with huge human and economic costs as a result. What kind of welfare is that? ...

More than half of Sweden's 50 largest companies were founded before World War I; only two after 1970. Of five million working-age adults, one million remain outside the workforce, even though few are officially unemployed. The rest are either in various state-run job-training programs, on long-term sick leave, or receiving early retirement or disability pensions from the state...

Sweden is not rich because of the welfare state. On the contrary, it is rich despite the welfare state. Sweden has a proud tradition of free-market institutions, and it was market reforms in the late 19th century as well as in the last reform period in the 1990s that explain the country's economic development. In the late 19th century successive liberal governments introduced free establishment in different trades, abolished guilds and stripped the upper classes of economic privileges that bled the economy dry. It was during this time that free trade was a badge of honour, and immigration and emigration were free for all. Sweden's most prosperous companies were born during this era: SKF, Electrolux and Assa (later Assa Abloy). In 1970, Sweden was the world's fourth richest country; today it is No14.

More here

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Another Leftist hypocrite: "For years, he was the scourge of the Masters of the Universe and the Sheriff of Wall Street. Now he's a joke. Legions of Wall Street's bankers, traders and investors relished the dark clouds enveloping New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been tied to a prostitution ring, The New York Times reported. The Times reported that Spitzer was caught on a federal wire-tap arranging to meet a $US1000-an-hour prostitute at a Washington hotel last month. Spitzer, a Democrat, rose to political stardom while state attorney-general through high-profile investigations into improper business practices by major Wall Street firms. Though his signature issue was pursuing Wall Street's misdeeds, as attorney-general Spitzer also prosecuted at least two prostitution rings when he ran the state's organised crime task force, The New York Times said. The paper said Spitzer "spoke with revulsion and anger" in 2004 after announcing the arrest of 16 people for running what the paper termed a high-end prostitution ring in Staten Island. Spitzer, who is the father of three children, was extolled for his virtues and unyielding focus on corporate malfeasance." [Betsy Newmark has some acerbic comments]

A nasty guy gets his deserts: "One might call it Shakespearian if there were a shred of nobleness in the story of Eliot Spitzer's fall. There is none. Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined."

GWB dines with Aussies: "Former Prime Minister John Howard has been honoured with a private family dinner with his friend and ally, President George Bush, at the White House, during his extended speaking tour of the US. His dinner with Mr Bush - a symbol of the bond the two leaders forged - comes ahead of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's first visit to the US later this month, when he will have an official lunch with President Bush at the White House. Mr Howard is in Boston for two days for engagements at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government."

More anti-American fakery? "There is a video circulating like crazy online of a United States soldier throwing a puppy over the cliff in what appears to be Iraq. What's most disturbing is not the act itself (which is under investigation and the video's authenticity is in question), but how quickly many here have condemned those soldiers, IF they are soldiers at all. We supposedly live in a nation where one is innocent until proven guilty, but thanks to the smearing of our entire Armed Forces because of isolated events at Abu Ghraib, as well as Hollywood's slanderous contributions, many are quick to believe this video's authenticity and our military's guilt. I could be wrong, but I believe the video is a fake. This would not be the first time we've all been punk'd...."

Is the Solution to Hire More Muslim Journalists? "Philip Bennett, managing editor of the Washington Post, offered a franker set of views than perhaps he intended when he spoke on March 3 at the University of California-Irvine's Center for the Study of Democracy about media coverage of Islam, as reported by Alan Blank in the Daily Pilot. Bennett, Blank writes, thinks news organizations ought to hire more Muslim reporters. To illustrate this point he drew mainly from quotes of notable colleagues and statistical polls, rarely giving his own opinion directly. "Six of 10 Americans, according to a 2007 ABC Poll, don't understand the basic tenets of Islam," Bennett said. He attributed this to the lack of Muslims working in American newsrooms. "At the Post I want more Muslim readers and I want more Muslim journalists." Bennett assumes, with touching naivete, that to be Muslim is know Islam. Less touching is the assumption that not to be a Muslim is not to know Islam. This fraudulent expectation of special insight from one's status, religious or otherwise, needs strenuously to be rejected."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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The charming Ed Brayton



The existence of businessman/comedian Ed Brayton has only twice come to my attention. Last year I referred to him as "some fat guy from Michigan" and, despite that being an accurate description, it apparently caused some heartburn in our Ed. I note however that he has recently referred to some university student conservatives as "larvae" -- implying that they are loathsome insects. So it looks like I was too objective in my earlier description. I should, perhaps, have called him a "fat grub". Have a look at his picture and see if you think that fits. For a man in his early 40s he is looking very lush -- and that is probably an old photo.

I don't however have any strong objections to his recent attack on my writings. He presents a set of fairly reasonable excerpts from my various notes about the similarities between Obama and the Fascists of the 1930s. I am glad that he has exposed my contentions to his Leftist audience. Some intelligent Clintonista (if there is one) might note them and use them! I am pretty sure no Clintonistas read this blog!

Brayton thinks it is self-evident that my comparison is absurd -- and he would not be alone in that: Fascists are nasty and evil and Obama is nice. Sadly, the Leftist control of the education system has almost completely blanked out how Hitler was seen in his time. I guess it is hard for a survivor of a modern education to accept but Hitler too was seen as "nice" in his day -- as a caring father figure for all Germans in fact. He was even seen as devoted to peace! I include some documentation of that in my monograph on Hitler.

And Obama and the Fascists have lots of policy in common too -- government control of just about everything, in fact. And I pointed out recently on my Obama blog that Obama is not at all averse to military adventures abroad.

And the public adulation Obama receives is eerily reminiscent of how Hitler was received by vast numbers of Germans. But you have to know history to realize that. Brayton should stick to comedy. He probably knows something about that.

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An interesting excerpt about McCain

What Bud Day and other POWs specifically admired about Nixon was his willingness to strike back in a way that Johnson hadn't. Johnson's bombing halt in 1968 was seen as a betrayal by POWs, and caused disappointment and anger even throughout the U.S. military. Remember that these POWs were often combat pilots-professional warriors and volunteers that is, not citizen soldiers who were drafted. Professional warriors are not fatalists. In their minds, there is no such thing as defeat so long as they are still fighting, even from prison. That belief is why true soldiers have an affinity for seemingly lost causes.

In December 1967, a prisoner was dumped in Day's cell on the outskirts of Hanoi, known as the Plantation. This prisoner's legs were atrophied and he weighed under 100 pounds. Day helped scrub his face and nurse him back from the brink of death. The fellow American was Navy Lieutenant Commander John Sidney McCain III of the Panama Canal Zone. As his health improved, McCain's rants against his captors were sometimes as ferocious as Day's. The North Vietnamese tried and failed, through torture, to get McCain to accept a release for their own propaganda purposes: The lieutenant commander was the son of Admiral John McCain Jr., the commander of all American forces in the Pacific. "Character," writes the younger McCain, quoting the 19th century evangelist Dwight Moody, "is what you are in the dark," when nobody's looking and you silently make decisions about how you will act the next day.

In early 1973, during a visit to Hanoi, North Vietnamese officials told Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that they would be willing to free McCain into his custody. Kissinger refused, aware that there were prisoners held longer than McCain, ahead of him in the line for release. McCain suffered awhile longer in confinement, then, once freed, thanked Kissinger for "preserving my honor." The two have been good friends since. McCain blurbs with gusto Bud Day's memoir. The senator writes: "I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the dimensions of human greatness.

Henry Kissinger, we should remember, was himself a soldier in the American army. He was an intelligence officer (quel surprise) and served in the Battle of the Bulge, staying behind at some personal risk after his unit bugged out to interrogate captured German soldiers. Point is, he probably understood what John McCain the prisoner would want without having to be told.

John McCain's military service and "sacrifice" does not, ipso facto, qualify him to be president. It does, however, tell us a great deal about the things he values most when he has to make decisions under extremely adverse conditions, and that is certainly useful for voters to know.

More here

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There is an appalling story here about how the British authorities have barred a conservative Israeli from visiting Britain -- while at the same time allowing into Britain a well-known Muslim preacher of hate and Jihad.



Both Fausta and Atlas have derisive posts about the poisonous "Elders" (including Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter) who are going to the Middle East to bring about peace (Translation: Blame Israel for everything).

The next Scots-Irish president : "What do Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Barack Obama have in common, besides wanting to be the next commander in chief? They are all of Scots-Irish descent, an ethnic and cultural lineage that has produced more presidents and military leaders than any other. "Fascinating, but not surprising," says U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. The former naval secretary and decorated Marine should know: He catalogued the migration and cultural influence of the Scots-Irish in America in his book Born Fighting. So, who are these mystery leaders and influential voters? Dr. Joyce Alexander, secretary of the national Scotch-Irish Society in Philadelphia, traces their roots to a mass migration from northern Ireland in the 1700s. The "Ulster Scots," who had been tossed to Ireland two centuries earlier, grew tired of fighting England's battle against Irish Catholics, so they left. A group of their clans settled in New Hampshire, then spread to Maine and Vermont. "Eventually, most of them settled south of New England," Alexander explains"

I had to laugh at this: "The seven deadly sins have grown to at least 14 after the Vatican updated its 1400-year-old list of the worst moral failures to reflect the modern world. The new deadly sins that may lead to eternal damnation are polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice, The Times newspaper has reported. Quoting from Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, The Times reported that certain actions were so unholy that they needed to be deemed as "mortal sins" - not the less serious "venial sins". The man in charge of examining confessions and indulgences for the Vatican, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, told the Vatican newspaper that priests should be aware of the "new" sins".

Amazing! British bureaucrats fall on their swords: "Most of the officials at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who were directly responsible for the flawed supervision of Northern Rock have quit, The Times has learnt. Of the seven FSA supervisors working closely on the bank before its implosion last August, five have left, the FSA has admitted, responding to a Freedom of Information Act request from this newspaper. The FSA, the body responsible for ensuring that UK banks have strong-enough balance sheets and sufficient liquidity, has come under fire for failing to spot the fatal flaw in Northern Rock's business model. The FSA is expected to admit to shortcomings in its supervision of the Rock in a report this month. Hector Sants, the chief executive, has already admitted to MPs that the FSA's performance was unacceptable and that there were failings. Northern Rock's extreme dependence on the wholesale money markets, rather than on depositors, for its funding proved a catastrophic weakness when the credit crunch hit last summer, leading to the first run on a British bank for more than a century."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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An interesting piece of research

The academic authors of the research managed to twist something derogatory to conservatives out of it but see what you think:

Dr Wilson and Dr Storm restricted their study to white, Protestant teenagers, in order to eliminate confounding variables. However, their volunteers came from two different traditions-Pentecostal, which tends to the conservative, and Episcopalian, which tends to the liberal. The researchers conducted the study by giving each volunteer a beeper that went off every two hours or so. When it beeped, the volunteer answered a questionnaire about what he was doing at that moment, and how he felt about it.

Dr Wilson and Dr Storm found several unexpected differences between the groups. Liberal teenagers always felt more stress than conservatives, but were particularly stressed if they could not decide for themselves whom they spent time with. Such choice, or the lack of it, did not change conservative stress levels. Liberals were also loners, spending a quarter of their time on their own. Conservatives were alone for a sixth of the time. That may have been related to the fact that liberals were equally bored by their own company and that of others. Conservatives were far less bored when with other people. They also preferred the company of relatives to non-relatives. Liberals were indifferent. Perhaps most intriguingly, the more religious a liberal teenager claimed to be, the more he was willing to confront his parents with dissenting beliefs. The opposite was true for conservatives.

More here

Conservatives are happier: Check. Conservatives like people more: Check. Leftists are misfits: Check. Conservatives are more family-oriented: Check. Leftists are more disagreeable: Check

As Marginal Revolution notes, one of the authors above blogs on the Puffington Host. And does he huff and puff! It's marvellous what you can see in your data when you want to.

As far as I can ascertain, the research concerned has not been published in the academic journals and is based on an M.A. dissertation only. Quality stuff!


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Transfer: Send the Palestinians to other Arab lands

Jordan is just East Palestine anyway. Excerpt:

The Palestinians are the most sickening, revolting group of people on earth. They're actually more loathsome than even the Nazis were because the Palestinian people have all their evil impulses, but they're considerably less industrious and less civilized.



We Americans like to believe the best about people. You know, "The leaders are the bad guys, but the regular people aren't any different than us." The reality is that the Palestinians in the disputed territories are different from us, because the majority of them are evil. By that, I mean that the problem isn't just their leaders and the terrorist thugs, the problem is the average person on the street. The butcher, the school teacher, the traffic cop -- the majority of them are vile, sick, twisted, evil excuses for human beings and that's why there is no peace in the region. Israel can no more live next to these people in peace than New Yorkers could live in peace with New Jersey if it were taken over by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

...Which leads to a very basic question: if this was happening to Americans, how far would we be willing to go to stop it? The truth is, we already know the answer to that question because our ancestors have had to deal with this sort of savagery when Indians tortured and murdered American settlers. Our response was, depending on the situation, to slaughter them and/or force them to move.

Today, in our very civilized world, we look back with shock and horror at what we did to the Indians -- and indeed, some of them didn't deserve what they got. All too often, our ancestors didn't make much of an effort to distinguish between friendly, peaceful Indian tribes and murderous, cannibalistic savages. On the other hand, their strategy of massacring our enemies was one that has been used throughout the ages and it has been proven, time and time again, to work -- and it certainly worked for us.

More here

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Hillary's "experience": ""I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday. But negotiators from the parties that helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 told The Daily Telegraph that her role was peripheral and that she played no part in the gruelling political talks over the years."

Society is a blessing, but government is evil: "A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It had its origin in the principles of society, and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has in man and all the parts of a civilized community upon each other create that great chain of connection which holds it together."

Good God! Could Buckley really have believed in the crank ideas of Henry George?: "Few of the news articles on William F. Buckley's life and death mentioned that he was a Georgist, an adherent of the policies espoused by the American economist and social reformer, Henry George. Buckley's intellectual development was influenced strongly by the Georgist libertarians Albert Nock and Frank Chodorov. Buckley's father, William Buckley, Sr., brought scholars to his Connecticut home to privately tutor his children. One of these tutors was Frank Chodorov, who became Buckley's mentor. The father was also a friend of Albert Jay Nock, and encouraged his son to read Nock's works."

Abe in his own hand: "Barely a year into the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suggested buying slaves for $400 apiece under a 'gradual emancipation' plan that would bring peace at less cost than several months of hostilities. The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters penned by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives. The correspondence was digitally scanned and posted online along with easier-to-read transcriptions. Accompanying them are 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of fellow political and military leaders."

Another stupid and useless ban: "Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced Tuesday by a City Council committee. Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width," after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park. Lt. Kevin Navarro, commanding officer of the Chicago Police Department's Narcotics and Gang Unit, said the ordinance will be an "important tool" to go after grocery stores, health food stores and other businesses. The bags are used by the thousand to sell small quantities of drugs at $10 or $20 a bag."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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My Obama Watch blog now has a mirror site -- for all your friends in China and for times when blogspot is down


Democrats creating enemies around the world

Despite their spirited squabbling, the two Democratic candidates are united in the view that one of the big benefits of electing either of them would be an improvement in America's reputation and relations with the world. Hillary Clinton promises to send special envoys to foreign capitals the day after she's elected. Barack Obama offers to reach out to America's foes as well as friends. Unfortunately none of this will matter if they continue to spout dangerous and ill-informed rhetoric about trade.

For the rest of the world-particularly poorer countries-nice speeches about multilateralism are well and good. But what they really want is for the United States to continue its historic role in opening up the world economy. For a struggling farmer in Kenya, access to world markets is far more important than foreign aid or U.N. programs. If the candidates think they will charm the world while adopting protectionist policies, they are in for a surprise.

Already the mood is shifting abroad. Listening to the Democrats on trade "is enough to send jitters down the spine of most in India," says the Times Now TV channel in New Delhi. The Canadian press has shared in the global swoon for Obama, but is now beginning to ask questions. "What he is actually saying-and how it might affect Canada-may come as a surprise to otherwise devout Barack boosters," writes Greg Weston in the Edmonton Sun. The African press has been reporting on George W. Bush's visit there with affection and, in some cases, by contrasting his views on trade with the Democratic candidates'. The Bangkok Post has compared the Democrats unfavorably with John McCain and his vision of an East Asia bound together, and to the United States, by expanding trade ties.

For Obama, the backlash could be greatest because he's raised the highest hopes. A senior Latin American diplomat, who asked to remain unnamed because of the sensitivity of the topic, says, "Look, we're all watching Obama with bated breath and hoping [his election] will be a transforming moment for the world. But now that we're listening to him on trade-the issue that affects us so deeply-we realize that maybe he doesn't wish us well. In fact, we might find ourselves nostalgic for Bush, who is brave and courageous on trade and immigration."

The facts about trade have been too well rehearsed to go into them in any great detail, but let me point out that NAFTA has been pivotal in transforming Mexico into a stable democracy with a growing economy. And, in Lawrence Summers's words, "[it] didn't cost the United States a penny. It contributed to the strength of our economy because of more exports and because imports helped to reduce inflation." Trade between the NAFTA countries has boomed since 1993, growing by about $700 billion. There are no serious economists or experts who believe that low wages in Mexico or China or India is the fundamental reason that American factories close down. And labor and environmental standards would do very little to change the reality of huge wage differentials between poor and rich countries' workers.

The question needs to be asked why Democrats have let a few union bosses drag them into this international disaster in the making. They answer has to be among other things, their own incompetence and the incompetence of their economic advisers.

Source

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WHY THERE'S A HAMAS-ISRAEL WAR : "The deliberate murder of eight and the wounding of nine Israeli rabbinical students in Jerusalem only highlights the fact that Hamas is at war with Israel. It is, from Hamas's view, a war that will never end until Israel is exterminated and its citizens killed or expelled. No other analysis is accurate or can explain what is happening. First, the fact that it is a war must be understood. The Gaza Strip is technically not a state, yet is functioning as one. The Gaza government of the radical Islamist Hamas has declared war on Israel. The war's purpose is not to free Gaza from occupation, nor is it a defensive war in response to Israeli attacks. The goal--openly and daily declared by Hamas in media and speeches, teaching in schools and sermons in mosques--is a long-term campaign to wipe Israel off the map and to kill or expel most of its citizens. There's a word for this: genocide."

Far from a Russian-US arms race (by Richard N. Perle): "With a stridency reminiscent of the cold war, outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin charged last month that with US plans for a limited defense against ballistic missiles, 'a new arms race has been unleashed in the world.' He vowed to field new weapons, which have been under development for years, 'in response.' The same day, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he anticipated 'hundreds of thousands of missile interceptors all over the world ... in the foreseeable future.' Both claims are wrong. Despite a near universal belief to the contrary, the 'action-reaction-upward-spiraling strategic weapons race' of the cold war never really happened. And Lavrov's hundreds of thousands of missile interceptors won't happen either."

Army brass finally get off their fat behinds: "The US Army plans to overhaul its largest online education program following revelations that thousands of soldiers have openly cheated on training exams to get promoted, according to an Army spokesman. General William S. Wallace, the head of Army training, ordered the overhaul recently after an internal review confirmed the findings of a Globe investigation last year that revealed the training command knew as early as 1999 that cheating was widespread. The investigation revealed soldiers were obtaining exact copies of tests and answers for the more than 1,000 online correspondence courses. The new measures - including randomized test questions, individual test access cards, and limits on the number of courses a soldier can take in a given period - are expected to cost millions of dollars."

The Canadian version of privacy: "The TTC can go ahead with plans to dramatically increase its video camera surveillance, Ontario's privacy commissioner says. Toronto's plan for 10,000 additional cameras on buses, streetcars and subway cars complies with the province's privacy standards, Ann Cavoukian said today when she released her report. But the TTC still has to make some changes to make sure the privacy-invasive technology is only used for legitimate crime fighting purposes and not voyeurism as has happened in some other cities, she said."

There's a time and a place for a beanball: "Where in the Constitution does it say that Congress may interfere in the internal affairs of a private baseball league or its players? How exactly have these vainglorious congressional publicity hounds come by the idea that their jurisdiction has no limits? The biggest shockeroo, however, is that these despicable charlatans would throw a private citizen to the FBI wolves on account of his having possibly lied to them, of all people. Do they not lie to the public and to each other with nearly every utterance they make? Do they not lie routinely to their friends, their spouses, their sons and daughters, and even to their cats and dogs? Why is it that what's good for the Clemens goose is unsuited to the congressional gander?"

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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There are no Obama posts below because they are all on my Obama blog


Why vote for McCain?

The writer excerpted below makes a good point but I think that McCain's probably more conservative nominations to the Supreme Court are reason enough to vote for him

Many Republicans-this writer included-are not happy with the thought of Senator John McCain as their presidential nominee. Many of these same Republicans are not happy with the Republican Party's drift toward big government and away from conservative principles. Instead of capitalizing on their control of both houses of Congress and the White House and ushering in decades of Republican control of the government, the administration has missed opportunity after opportunity to show real leadership and make government our servant rather than our master. And Senator McCain promises more of the same, with even more of a tilt to the left. Given this, why should conservatives vote for Senator McCain?

The conventional answer is that Senator McCain is the lesser of two evils and, as conservatives, we would be better off with him in the White House than either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton. But would we?

While a McCain administration could be expected to propose less "liberal" legislation and a somewhat less intrusive federal government than either Obama or Clinton, the differences would not be great. If one looks at the net result of legislative and executive initiatives, it could well be the case that more McCain-proposed legislation would be passed than that proposed by a Democratic administration. This would likely be the case if Republicans in the Congress functioned effectively as a "loyal opposition" and stopped the worst of any socialistic initiatives of the liberal Democrats. Those same Republicans would be reluctant to vote against legislation pushed by "their" president.

The question that Senator McCain must answer for doubting conservatives is "Why are we better off with you in the White House than we would be if a Democrat is elected president and Republicans retain enough power in Congress to stop Democrat programs harmful to the country?" Based on McCain's past record and positions, it is not readily apparent that McCain would be significantly better than the alternative. Certainly this is the case until McCain convinces conservatives that he shares many of their views on the critical issues of the day.

More here

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Grim outlook in the Senate: "Last summer, Senate Republicans seemed headed for a cliff in the 2008 election and likely to land on the wrong side of a 60-seat, filibuster-proof Democratic majority. Fights over immigration and Iraq had plunged Republican approval ratings to new lows, and a string of retirements left the GOP in danger of losing more than a dozen seats. Senator John Ensign, chairman of the Senate GOP's campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), says donors wouldn't so much as take his calls. But Republican prospects have "improved quite a bit," Ensign says, now that things are going better in Iraq. The number of competitive races has shrunk as Democrats failed to recruit blue-chip candidates in red states like Tennessee, North Carolina, Kansas, and Nebraska. NRSC executive director Scott Bensing says recruiting Republican candidates was "painstaking" a year ago, but now Republicans have strong candidates for a number of contested seats where John McCain's nomination should help win independents. Even so, November's Senate races are an uphill battle. Republicans control 23 of the 35 seats up for election this year, and 9 of the 10 vulnerable seats are held by Republicans, mostly in blue states and states that are trending Democratic."

Former Clinton Official Named as Russian Dupe: "Although Talbott has been identified in press accounts as a current adviser to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, he showed up to hear Senator Barack Obama deliver a foreign policy address in 2005 to the Council on Foreign Relations and declared, "It was very impressive." In what could be the biggest State Department scandal since State Department official and United Nations founder Alger Hiss was exposed as a Soviet spy, a top Clinton State Department official and former Time magazine journalist has been identified as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service. The sensational charge against Strobe Talbott is made in a new book based on interviews with a Russian defector. The book, Comrade J, by veteran author and reporter Pete Earley, identifies Talbott as having been manipulated by a Russian official working for Russian intelligence in order to get information about U.S. foreign policy. The same book describes the United Nations as a major base of espionage operations for Russia in the U.S."



Yet another black psychopath in "multicultural" Britan: "A gym instructor scuffled violently with court guards yesterday as he was found guilty of bludgeoning to death a student who performed on the junior version of Stars in Their Eyes, her mother and younger brother. Pierre Williams, 33, used a steelheaded hammer to kill his former lover, Beverley Samuels, a 36-year-old nurse, her daughter, Kesha Wizzart, 18, and son, Fred, 13. Three security guards rushed to restrain Williams, who was bundled down to the cells at Manchester Crown Court after the verdict, loudly proclaiming his innocence. He was banned from the dock by the judge, when he sentenced him later to at least 38 years in prison. Mr Justice Pitchford concluded that only Williams, who had a history of sexual violence towards women, could know what terror and pain he had inflicted upon his victims before they died".

Rather not have Rather: ""48 Hours" Celebrates Its 20 th Anniversary - But Founding Anchor Dan Rather Left Off the Invite List Everybody who is anybody in television news - with one glaring omission - showed up for last week's twentieth-anniversary blowout for "48 Hours," which, after "60 Minutes," is CBS News' most durable magazine program. On hand for the party were CBS chairman Leslie Moonves , CBS News president Sean McManus , "48 Hours" executive producer Susan Zirinsky , former CBS president Sir Howard Stringer and former news president Andrew Heyward . Missing was original "48 Hours" anchor Dan Rather , who was not invited, New York magazine reports"

Louisiana logic: CUTTING prices is "price fixing"??: " A group of crawfish farmers says it will ask the state Attorney General's Office to investigate allegations that big seafood wholesalers are working together to keep down prices at the dock. Crawfish farmers are complaining of wholesale prices dropping from more than $2 per pound to $1 per pound in the past month. The Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association voted at a meeting Tuesday to suspend fishing for two days a week in an effort to raise the price by limiting supply. Association Director Stephen Minvielle said Wednesday that he is gathering information on alleged illegal price fixing to submit to the state Attorney General's Office. He named no processors, but cites as evidence a series of price drops for crawfish that occurred across the state on the same day by the same amount."

For more postings from me, see OBAMOLOGY, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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There are no Obama posts below because they are all on my Obama blog -- including toons as usual. I have also now got around to putting up a more attractive template for my Obama blog -- a template which is -- surprise, surprise! -- much like my other templates


More from Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg -- on big business colluding with socialism.

They did it in Fascist Italy and in Hitler's Germany and they do it now in the USA. And Adam Smith warned us about it long ago: "Men of the same profession never gather together except to conspire against the general public". Excerpt below from chapter 8, "Liberal Fascist Economics"

So long as some firms are willing to prostitute themselves to Uncle Sam, every business feels the pressure to become a whore.... This is the hidden story of big business from the railroads of the nineteenth century, to the meatpacking industry under Teddy Roosevelt, to the outrageous cartel of "Big Tobacco" today: supposedly right-wing corporations work hand in glove with progressive politicians and bureaucrats in both parties to exclude small businesses, limit competition, ensure market share and prices, and generally work as government by proxy. Big business rallied behind LBJ, not the objectively free-enterprise Barry Goldwater. Free marketeers often decry Richard Nixon's wage and price controls, but what is usually forgotten is that big business cheered them

...There's no sector of the American economy more suffused with corporatism than agriculture. Indeed, both Democrats and Republicans are decidedly fascistic when it comes to the "family farmer," pretending that their policies are preserving some traditional voelkisch lifestyle while in reality they're subsidizing enormous corporations.

But corporatism is only part of the story. Just as corporations were enmeshed in the larger Nazi Gleichschaltung, supposedly right-wing big business is central to the progressive coordination of contemporary society. If big business is so right-wing, why do huge banks fund liberal and left-wing charities, activists, and advocacy groups, then brag about it in commercials and publicity campaigns? How to explain that there's virtually no major issue in the culture wars - from abortion to gay marriage to affirmative action - where big business has played a major role on the American right while there are dozens of examples of corporations supporting the liberal side?

Indeed, the myth of the right-wing corporation allows the media to tighten liberalism's grip on both corporations and the culture. John McCain perfectly symbolizes this catch-22 of modern liberalism. McCain despises the corrupting effect of "big money" in politics, but he is also a major advocate of increased government regulation of business. Apparently he cannot see that the more government regulates business, the more business is going to take an interest in "regulating" government. Instead, he has concluded that he should try to regulate political speech, which is like decrying the size of the garbage dump and deciding the best thing to do is regulate the flies.

These speech regulations in turn give an unfair advantage to some very big businesses - media conglomerates, movie studios, and such - to express their views in ways exempt from government censorship. It's no surprise that some of these outlets tend to celebrate McCain's genius and courage and use their megaphones to expand on the need for him to go even further and for other politicians to follow his lead. Of course, this dynamic is much larger than mere regulation. The New York Times is pro-choice and supports pro-choice candidates - openly on its editorial pages, more subtly in its news pages. Pro-life groups need to pay to get their views across, but such paid advertising is heavily regulated, thanks to McCain, at exactly the moment it might influence people - that is, near Election Day. One can replace abortion with gun control, gay marriage, environmentalism, affirmative action, immigration, and other issues, and the dynamic remains the same.

That is how the liberal Gleichschaltung works; contrary voices are regulated, barred, banned when possible, mocked and marginalized when not, Progressive voices are encouraged, lionized, amplified - in the name of "diversity," or "liberation," or "unity," and, most of all, "progress."

....In the brave new corporatism, we are all "partners" after all. Environmentalism in particular offers a number of eerie parallels to fascist practices, including as an overarching rationale for corporatist policies. According to generic fascism, an atmosphere of crisis must be maintained in order to circumvent conventional rules. Today, while Hollywood and the press relentlessly hype the threat of global warming, big business works assiduously to form alliances and partnerships with government as if the fight against global warming were the moral equivalent of war. Indeed, Al Gore - who makes much of such public-private partnerships - claims that global warming is equivalent to the Holocaust and anybody who denies it is the moral equivalent of a Holocaust denier.

Source

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Above: Leftist attention-seeker with funny hat. Story here

There's a brilliant British video HERE about Islam. There is still SOME straight talk left in Britain.

British grit still exists: "War hero Captain Bernie Bambury's leg was torn off in an 80mph toboggan crash - and he did not even realise it was missing. Bernie, 32, COMPLETED the famous Cresta Run, then asked: "Is my ankle broken?" He was told: "It's not broken, it's gone." The dashing Army officer survived six months in Iraq unscathed, only to suffer the horrific accident in St Moritz, Switzerland. Swiss microsurgeons sewed the limb back on. But after nine operations they told Bernie it would be two years before he could walk - and he might never regain full mobility. So the tough soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles ordered astonished medics: "Cut it off." Yesterday he was fitted with a false leg and hopes to be back leading his men within a year. He told The Sun: "Amputation gave the best prospects for the rest of my life and the swiftest return to duty." Bernie, based at Bulford, Wilts, tackled the fearsome Cresta Run - nearly a mile of solid ice - at an Army tobogganing event in January. His right foot hit a marker post and the leg, severed below the knee, was recovered hundreds of yards up the course after he crossed the finish."



Another black psychopath: "A London fitness instructor has been jailed for life after he went on a first date armed with a carving knife and murdered a businesswoman by stabbing her more than 30 times. Karl Taylor, 27, was told by Old Bailey judge Giles Forrester that he would not be eligible for parole for at least 30 years for Kate Beagley's brutal murder. The 32-year-old, of Walton-on-Thames, was stabbed in the face and neck during her date with Taylor, the court was told. Prosecutors said Taylor, who also worked as a football coach, met his victim in the CC Club at the Trocadero in Piccadilly, central London, on May 20 2007. After dancing they arranged another meeting, with their first date 10 days later in Chiswick, West London. After their first drink, Beagley - described as "well-travelled, with a great sense of adventure" by friends and family - drove Taylor to Richmond Hill where they had another drink. They then walked to a bench overlooking the River Thames, where she was killed. After her father, Alan, had reported her missing, Taylor was traced and interviewed, where he could not offer an explanation for the killing."

Ohio needs more foreign trade: "Sen. Clinton denounced the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) as 'flawed' and blamed it for closing factories in Ohio and upstate New York. Sen. Obama claimed that 'if you travel through Youngstown and you travel through communities in my home state of Illinois, you will see entire cities that have been devastated as a consequence of trade agreements.' Both pledged to withdraw the U.S. from Nafta if Canada and Mexico refuse to add 'enforceable' labor and environmental standards. But tinkering with a 14-year-old trade agreement will not bring an industrial renaissance to Youngstown and other Rust Belt cites. The relative decline of those regions dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the American economy began a transition from heavy industry toward an information-based service economy."

For more postings from me, see OBAMOLOGY, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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There are no Obama posts below because they are all on my Obama blog

Chavez planning a new Bolshevik revolution?

He probably plans to take on the army -- which he does not now control and which is the only remaining check on his power

If you remember the chaos that surrounded the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), you know that financial institutions simply cannot operate under conditions of street violence. The tenuous situation in Venezuela could soon reach that state, in light of disturbing new developments that have come to light. Read the details below, and decide for yourself whether a civil war is on the horizon in Caracas. Here is what we know so far:

*.. Four secret flights are scheduled into Venezuela, on TAM Brazilian Airlines, transporting 31.5 tonnes of firearms made in Brazil. The first flight has already arrived, carrying 1.5 tonnes of weapons; each additional flight is scheduled to bring in ten tonnes each.

*.. Whilst the exact types of weapons are unknown, one can safely estimate that between 50,000 and 70,000 weapons will be contained in these shipments, which are not consigned for the Ministry of Defence, but are to be quietly delivered directly to the Miraflores Presidential Palace, on the orders of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias. Why all the secrecy?

*.. In a country where the armed forces and the police are already well-equipped, these weapons can only have one intended use; to arm civilian supporters of the current regime, who will use it upon the opposition in an expected violent confrontation that could degenerate into a civil war.

A civil disturbance would result in the complete shutdown of the financial system in the capital. Watch for any preliminary signs of organised violence, closure of shops and businesses, and attacks upon civilians.

Source

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Brookes News Update

Why America will go into recession: f my email is anything to go by, there are a lot of worried and confused people out there. Basically most want to know why if the US economy is going to slide into recession. Of course it will
Why a carbon tax would hit living standards: A carbon tax is an attack on the capital structure and no amount of abusive language can change that fact. Therefore such a tax dissipates capital, strikes at investment, undercuts living standards and encouragers companies to move offshore
The Cult of Obama: What America truly needs is not a sycophantic public following a cult leader on a path of foolishness. Obama is an empty suit. He is all show and no substance, like so much of modern entertainment. He is the MTV candidate
Monopolistic competition and unions : Monopolistic competition and oligopoly are economic dead-ends that have wasted an enormous amount of intellectual talent while providing enemies of the market with abundant ammunition
Cuba's New and Improved Tyrant: Once again the mainstream media is running interference for the murderous Castro brothers, assuring free world that Raul Castro is a 'pragmatist' and a 'reformer'. What they refuse to tell us is that the freedom-loving Raul is even more sadistic than his ailing brother. This is a man who murdered kids. What counts with our vile media is not the crime but who committed. This is why they give socialist thugs a free pass
Scientific approach to Arab-Israel conflict: Self-hating Jews are promoting ideas that would destroy Israel and create another Holocaust. Are these Jews suffering from misplaced guilt. Or is it no accident that everyone of them is a leftist. For the left Israel is a monstrous capitalist state that has to be destroyed - even if it means another Holocaust
President Lula of Brazil: guilty by confession: President Lula deliberately violated Brazilian sovereignty and has put it at risk by conspiring with FARC (a Colombian narco-terrorist group), Chavez (Venezuela's wannabe Castro) and MIR (a Marxist Leninist terrorist group from Chile) to put the resources of Brazil at their disposal and help them direct 'the internal politics of many Latin-American nations'

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There is a very disturbing article here about the rapid decay of South Africa since it came under black rule. A fall from a first-world country to just another African hellhole seems to be well underway and is probably irreversible.

Colombia: Chavez Funding FARC Rebels : "Venezuela and Ecuador sought Monday to make Colombia pay a high price for killing a leftist rebel leader in the Ecuadorean jungle - expelling its diplomats, ordering troops to the border and cracking down on trade across the border. But Colombia quickly struck back, revealing what it said were incriminating documents seized from the rebel camp that suggest its neighbors have been secretly supporting the leftist rebels' deadly insurgency... Colombia's national police chief stood by its attack that killed Reyes, and said that documents recovered from his laptop showed Venezuela's leftist government recently paid $300 million to the rebels, among other financial and political ties that date back years, and that high-level meetings have been held between rebels and Ecuadorean officials".

Bureaucratic bungles incorrectly kill off thousands: "For a dead woman, Laura Todd is awfully articulate. 'I don't think people realize how difficult it is to be dead when you're not,' said Todd, who is very much alive and kicking in Nashville, Tenn., even though the federal government has said otherwise for many years. Todd's struggle started eight years ago with a typo in government records. The government has reassured her numerous times that it has cleared up the confusion, but the problems keep coming. ... Laura Todd is not alone. She is one of tens of thousands of living, breathing Americans whom the federal government has wrongly declared dead -- by one measure, more than 35 a day."

'Peace partner' at war with Israel in Gaza: "While Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip the past few days has been largely reported as a war against the Hamas terrorist group, members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization boasted they also engaged in clashes against Israeli forces and fired rockets into Jewish population centers. U.S. policy considers Fatah to be moderate."

U.N. sanctions Iran anew over nuclear program: " The U.N. Security Council approved a third round of sanctions against Iran on Monday with near unanimous support, sending a strong signal to Tehran that its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment is unacceptable and becoming increasingly costly. For the first time, the resolution bans trade with Iran in goods which have both civilian and military uses and authorizes inspections of shipments to and from Iran by sea and air that are suspected of carrying banned items."

For more postings from me, see OBAMOLOGY, 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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Blogger.com problems

Blogger.com has been mercifully free of their occasional service outages recently. I had hoped such outages were behind us. But they ARE showing signs of overload at the moment. So if this site is inaccessble or has not been updated recently, do use my mirror sites instead. They are listed here or here. It would be an idea to bookmark them.

There are no Obama posts below because they are all on my Obama blog

Ohio has itself to blame -- not NAFTA

There's no doubt times are tough in Ohio. The state has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, home foreclosures are soaring, and real family income is lower now than in 2000. Meanwhile, the Texas economy has boomed since 2004, with nearly twice the rate of new job creation as the rest of the nation.

Let's start with the fact that Texas's growth puts the lie to the myth that free trade costs American jobs. Anti-Nafta rhetoric doesn't play well in El Paso, San Antonio and Houston, which have become gateway cities for commerce with Latin America and have flourished since the North American Free Trade Agreement passed Congress in 1993. Mr. Obama's claim of one million lost jobs due to trade deals is laughable in Texas, the state most affected by Nafta. Texas has gained 36,000 manufacturing jobs since 2004 and has ranked as the nation's top exporting state for six years in a row. Its $168 billion of exports in 2007 translate into tens of thousands of jobs.

Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are losing auto jobs, but many of these "runaway plants" are not fleeing to China, Mexico or India. They've moved to more business-friendly U.S. states, including Texas. GM recently announced plans for a new plant to build hybrid cars. Guess where? Near Dallas. In 2006 the Lone Star State exported $5.5 billion of cars and trucks to Mexico and $2.4 billion worth to Canada....

Ohio's most crippling handicap may be that its politicians -- and thus its employers -- are still in the grip of such industrial unions as the United Auto Workers. Ohio is a "closed shop" state, which means workers can be forced to join a union whether they wish to or not. Many companies -- especially foreign-owned -- say they will not even consider such locations for new sites. States with "right to work" laws that make union organizing more difficult had twice the job growth of Ohio...

So tomorrow the eyes of America will be on these two states moving in different directions. Ohio has an economy burdened by high taxes and work rules that impose heavy costs on employers. Texas embraces free trade, keeps taxes low, doesn't impose unions on business and has tooled itself for 21st century global competition. Ohioans may not like to hear this, but for any company considering where to locate a new plant or move an existing one, the choice between Ohio and Texas isn't even a close call.

More here

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The Fed: a watchdog that didn't bark

Rather reminiscent of another failure of the Fed -- in 1929. Fed incompetence caused banks to fail then and banks are taking heavy hits now. But the problem this time is likely to be transient. It's just bank shareholders and investors in funds who will suffer to some extent. I am one of those, I might add. I am $200,000 down at the moment. But it's only money -- JR

The principal cause for concern today is the paralysis of the credit markets. Credit is always key to the expansion of the economy. The collapse of confidence in credit markets is now preventing that necessary extension of credit. The decline of credit creation includes not only the banks but also the bond markets, hedge funds, insurance companies and mutual funds. Securitization, leveraged buyouts and credit insurance have also atrophied.

The collapse of the credit markets began last summer when the subprime mortgage crisis demonstrated that financial risk of all types had been greatly underpriced, that the market prices of complex financial assets overstated their true values, and that the credit scores provided by rating agencies are not to be trusted. Because market participants now lack confidence in asset prices, they are unwilling to buy existing assets, thus preventing current asset owners from providing credit to new borrowers.

The lack of confidence in asset prices also translates into a lack of confidence in the creditworthiness of other financial institutions, impeding the extension of credit to those institutions. And because financial institutions do not even have confidence in the value of their own capital and in the potential availability of liquidity, they are reluctant to make new lending commitments.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the current situation. The Federal Reserve bears much of the responsibility, because of its failure to provide the appropriate supervisory oversight for the major money center banks. The Fed's banking examiners have complete access to all of the financial transactions of the banks that they supervise, and should have the technical expertise to evaluate the risks that those banks are taking. Because these banks provide credit to the nonbank financial institutions, the Fed can also indirectly examine what those other institutions are doing.

The Fed's bank examinations are supposed to assess the adequacy of each bank's capital and the quality of its assets. The Fed declared that the banks had adequate capital because it gave far too little weight to their massive off balance-sheet positions -- the structured investment vehicles (SIVs), conduits and credit line obligations -- that the banks have now been forced to bring onto their balance sheets. Examiners also overstated the quality of banks' assets, failing to allow for the potential bursting of the house price bubble.

Source

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California exodus turns to stampede: "California, which once lured Americans from near and far, is now driving out millions of the most productive residents - including high percentages of the most affluent. "When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state," says a report called "Rich States, Poor States" by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. "Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole." And it's not just the rich leaving. Based on data from moving companies, California had the second-highest domestic population out-flow of any state in 2005, according to the report, "despite the beautiful weather, beaches, and mountains." The bad news for California is that it faces a $14 billion deficit this year, despite boasting one of the highest tax burdens in the nation."

John T. Flynn and the myth of FDR: "Albert Jay Nock, distinguished man of letters and philosophical anarchist, was an inspiration to thinkers as diverse as Murray Rothbard and Robert Nisbet, Frank Chodorov and Russell Kirk. A personal friend of the father of William F. Buckley, Jr., he was a kind of guru to the young Buckley as well. In April, 1945, Nock wrote a cheery letter to two of his friends, describing the death of Franklin Roosevelt as 'the biggest public improvement that America has experienced since the passage of the Bill of Rights,' and suggesting a celebration luncheon at Luchow's.... When Flynn came to write his major study of the four-term president, he aptly titled it The Roosevelt Myth."

The Iranian bomb exposed: "Last Monday, the chief United Nations nuclear inspector gathered ambassadors and experts from dozens of nations in a boardroom high above the Danube in Vienna and laid out a trove of evidence that he said raised new questions about whether Iran had tried to design an atom bomb. For more than two hours, representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency were riveted by documents, sketches and even a video that appeared to have come from Iran’s own military laboratories. The inspector said they showed work “not consistent with any application other than the development of a nuclear weapon,” according to notes taken by diplomats."

There is a 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 OBAMOLOGY, 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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Lots up again (including toons) on my Obama blog today. And TONGUE-TIED is also a bit Obamafied again today

The unprincipled Left

One of the great truths about the Left is that they have no abiding principles (such as respect for the individual or a skepticism about human wisdom). All the Left have is a lust for power. And because of that they can turn on a dime when it suits them. And history is a good tool for showing that. But with their command of the educational system, the Left have ensured that only selected bits of history get taught in the schools or mentioned elsewhere. So the lessons of history are usually well-hidden from most people. That is why I contstantly remind people of what history shows.

One of the great turnarounds of the Left is in their attitude to minorities. And it is quite a recent and extreme turnaround. There are fortunately still lots of people alive who remember the defence of racial segregation by Democrat governors like George Wallace and Orval Faubus and the way Republican President Eisenhower crushed that defiance. But going further back is impossible for most people. There is much that I could say to take people further back but today I want to focus on just two eras: The late 19th century and the 1930s. The policies of the earlier era are crystal clear from the 1876 poster reproduced below and the second era is covered by a brief excerpt about a man who is to this day praised (quite misleadingly) by the Left as a great hero: FDR



(There is an original copy of the above poster available for sale on eBay at the moment)

Although he saw and addressed the evil that Hitler presented, Roosevelt's failure to comprehend the evils of communism laid the groundwork for the Cold War and the millions of victims of communist dictators must also be reckoned with as part of his legacy. Additionally, he was a bigot who made Archie Bunker look refined.

For one thing, Archie never used the N-word that Mr. Fireside Chat was all too comfortable with. Bruce Bartlett shows this side of the four-term president in his book Wrong On Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past.

To be fair, unlike his mentor Woodrow Wilson, FDR did not act on these inclinations, although the man with the cigarette holder may have done more harm by accident than the author of the 14 points did by design. Nevertheless, if the blacks who wept as his funeral train passed know how much they were set back by his policies, they might have cried for another reason. "To the extent that black workers were able to get public works jobs at all, they were mostly in lower level job categories than they had previously held before the New Deal," Bartlett, an economist, writes.

Nor did they fare much better in the economy as a whole. "In April 1930, the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent for black males and 6.9 percent for white males," Bartlett shows. "Seven years later, in 1937, after implementation of most New Deal programs, the unemployment rate for black males was well above that for white males: 19.1 percent for the former versus 13.9 percent for the latter."

"Negroes have lost jobs as a result of the NRA," Dr. Robert C. Weaver, the Roosevelt Administration's senior black economist said of the New Deal's National Recovery Act. Some wags said that NRA stood for "Negroes Ruined Again." "The minimum wage policy, he [Weaver] said, `resulted in wholesale discharges in certain areas,'" Bartlett relates. "A 1937 study by the NRA itself concluded that the minimum wage provisions of the NIRA [National Industrial Recovery Act] put 50,000 blacks out of work in 1934 alone."

To top it all off, Roosevelt was the first president to put a Klansman on the U. S. Supreme Court-a move that Woodrow Wilson is never known to have contemplated. Although FDR proclaimed ignorance of this colorful aspect of Hugo Black's past when asked about it in the 1930s, the justice himself offered a far different recollection in a 1968 memo. "President Roosevelt, when I went up to lunch with him, told me there was not reason for my worrying about my having been a member of the Ku Klux Klan," Justice Black remembered. "He said that some of his best friends and supporters he had in the state of Georgia were strong members of that organization." "He never, in any way, by word or attitude, indicated any doubt about my having been in the Klan, nor did he indicate any criticism of me for having been a member of that organization," Black wrote. "The rumors and statements to the contrary are wrong."

Source

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The Call of duty

"Charlie Foxtrot" is a good man. I honor him by reproducing his latest blog post below:

Well, the time has come...just a bit quicker than expected. Afghanistan, here I come....

I have known I would be deploying for some time now. However with a sudden change in training requirements, I am leaving home this week on only a few days notice. It is always fun telling your spouse that you are leaving in a few days, and won't be home for 10 months.

As I said, the deployment was expected, but the training requirement that will end up lasting a full 50% of the actual deployment was not.

Like many others in service, particularly in the Army with their prolonged deployments, there will be things that I miss while I am gone. My 40th birthday with my family. My son's 2nd birthday. Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.... But I cannot complain. It is part of my service to my nation. I have known this since the day I joined. Of course things are always easier when you are a single 20-something, not an almost-40 husband and father. Such is life....

So in a couple of days I will be off on another grand adventure that will start with several weeks of Air Force training, another few weeks of Army Huah training (where they will teach me to shoot bigger guns, drive Humvees, and sleep in barracks), and finish with my third trip to the sandbox.

I am not sure what the future holds on the blogging front. I intend to go on as normal as long as I have access. I will be taking along my intrepid, and recently revived Apple iBook. It has already been to Qatar and Iraq, so lets hope it will survive my summer vacation in the shadow of the Hindu Kush.

While it is always an honor to serve, no matter what your role, it does seem a little more relevant if you do it on the front lines. This war is the defining moment of my generation, and to crib a famous quote, "There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins". So, away I go....

I am pleased to say that I have linked to quite a few of his posts in recent months. Another U.S. military blogger understands what it is all about too.

For more postings from me, see OBAMOLOGY, 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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