THE VANISHED “UNION JACK”

For as long as I can recollect, the British national flag has always been known as the “Union Jack” -- a Jack being a flag indicating nationality. The U.S. Navy also has a “Jack” -- a blue flag with a star for each State. I gather that “Jacks” were originally called such because they were flown from the “jack-staff” of a sailing vessel. But in recent times the term “Union Jack” seems to have dropped out of use. All we now hear is “Union Flag” -- which is a lot of nonsense as there are any number of political unions in the world. Which union? The Soviet union? The European union?

Score one for feminism I guess. “Jack” was obviously too masculine. Many who fought under the Union Jack must be sad at their flag being denationalized, though.

Strictly speaking, a Jack is a small flag so “Union flag” is better from a heraldic point of view but I think it is political correctness rather than heraldic correctness that has changed the normal usage from what it once always was.

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MORE ON "ALLOWING" HARM

A good comment from a reader on my recent posting about the difference between doing harm and "allowing" harm:

Liberals know full well that we are unable to stop "all harm" - but, as long as any evil exists anywhere, they can blame conservatives for "not doing enough". Also, they do not differentiate good intentions and good deeds - as long as they "intend" to eliminate all harm (by good deeds - such as giving food to African dictators, etc.) they "feel good".

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HMMM.....

A reader writes:

Have you ever tried using against the anti-war protesters the line that: "The antiwar protesters don't trust the 'coloreds' with Democracy and that is why they are trying to kill the last best chance of Western-style Democracy in the region?" It causes everyone I've seen to blanch; they try to reconcile being "pro-Democratic" with being anti-Racist and recognize they can't do it.

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CRICKET AND USING NOUNS AS ADJECTIVES

Grammatical purists are a dying breed in these days of “Ebonics”, “postmodernism” and the like but for the small band who are left I have been reflecting on when it is that one may use a noun as an adjective. The best known example is from cricket. When England puts a team together to play Australia (generally with some difficulty), we speak of the England team, not the English team. Why? It’s obvious. Every village in England has a cricket team so there are thousands of English cricket teams -- but there is only one England team. An English cricket team is comprised of Englishmen. The England cricket team represents England. Clear? It should be but there is a small hitch. No-one ever refers to an Australia cricket team. The England team always plays “Australia” or “the Australians”! I think I know why .......

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ANTI-ZIONIST “LOGIC”


In case anybody has missed it, the last item on today’s Best of the Web is a brilliant spoof of the logic used by the “anti-Zionists” in America today.


(Crossposted on Israpundit)



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GLOBAL WARMING OR COOLING?

In June, 2002, the BBC reported that Greenland is warming up.

In March, 2003 the BBC has reported that Greenland is cooling down.

What a difference 9 months can make! At least the second report is based on more long-term data. When will people accept that there is nothing systematic going on there at all? Just random variations beyond our control?

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ELSEWHERE

Useful Fools has had an amusing thought: He wanted to boycott the U.N. -- but since he could not think of anything useful that they do he could not figure out how!

I liked this: that axis of paralysis known as the U.N. Security Council. From WSJ

Unfossilized has a picture of America’s latest MOAB bomb for those who have not yet seen it.

Michael Darby reproduces an analysis of how the far Left recruit students to do their dirty work.

Chris Brand looks at the causes of crime and asks whether certain personality types are more likely to be associated with criminal activity but finds no certain answer.

Today's academic paper from my past is here. It was written in about 1980 and was at one stage accepted for publication in an economics journal but for no clear reason never actually appeared. It looks at what it takes for people to be motivated to go into business.

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Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my home page here or here to get a new blog address.

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FALSE CHILD-ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

For some years now Britain has seen an absolute rash of false accusations of child abuse which have caused great hurt to many innocent people. The way the police and other arms of government have pursued the allegations has been an absolute travesty of justice that makes the very expression “British justice” a sick joke. In the end, however, the higher courts have usually overturned the dubious verdicts. TODAY we will see what the learned appeal court judges hand down in another such case. For more see here.

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ANTI-AMERICANISM

Australia’s Miranda Devine has some trenchant observations:

It's not just about Iraq. Bush faced the same protests in Europe in June 2001, three months before the September 11 terrorist attacks. He was even mooned by 1000 Swedish bottoms outside his Gothenburg hotel room. "I am against so many things about him it is hard to explain," 24-year-old student Kiffa Alverfors told The New York Times at the time. "The capitalist system is a way of living that I don't agree with."

Then there was ABC's Four Corners on Monday, which built up a picture of a sinister Jewish cabal of "neo-cons" who have stolen Bush's brain, for what it's worth. There was even ominous music to introduce these scary conservatives who are "almost all Jews whose parents had emigrated from Eastern Europe", reporter Jonathan Holmes told us. "Most of [hawk] Paul Wolfowitz's extended family perished in the death camps." In other words, it's all Israel's fault and Bush can't think for himself.

More here.

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SAME-SEX "MARRIAGE"

Jeff Jacoby has a good commentary on current attempts by homosexuals to institute same-sex "marriage". He points out that such a change would simply degrade the meaning of "marriage" -- which originated as a reproductive contract. And if you can have same-sex marriage, why not polygamy? Or why not marry your dog? Or even marry yourself? Such things have been suggested.

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DEPLETED URANIUM

The Greens love to waffle on about depleted uranium -- implying that it poses all sorts of health risks. It is a very hard and heavy metal so its main use is in ammunition -- where it is very good at knocking out enemy tanks. So if the Greens could get it banned it would greatly increase deaths among American soldiers during combat -- something the misanthropic Greens would of course cheer. Bizarre Science has an excellent summary of the evidence on the riskiness of DU. All the evidence shows it to be less risky even than normal soil. As well it should. The “depleted” part refers to radioactivity. DU is uranium from which the radioactive component has been REMOVED.

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ELSEWHERE

Professor Bunyip has an hilarious but sensible article on the folly of making recreational drugs illegal here.

Hello Bloggy is not mincing words about makes a "good" school -- it is a school with as few black pupils as possible -- and he notes that the NAACP agrees.

A reader sent me his version of why we should leave the young guys at home and send old guys to fight Saddam. See here. (Original version apparently by Jeff Ackerman)

Dean Esmay has a great collection of the "Day by Day" cartoons plus an interview with the writer/drawer of the cartoons.

And this is what is being taught in US high schools as history these days: Anti-semitism here during World War II was essentially an American Holocaust. From The Lone Dissenter. Only a Leftist would think that you could have a holocaust in which no-one died!

Michael Darby thinks that Jimmy Carter should stick to growing peanuts.

Chris Brand reviews what we know about neuroticism.

Today's academic paper from my past is here. I examine a paper by two Leftist psychologists who purport to show a relationship between conservatism and racism. I show that they ignore or misunderstand much of the literature on the subject and that their own research is flawed as well.

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Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my home page here or here to get a new blog address.

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CENSORING VIOLENCE ON TV

Calpundit has a post on the hoary old contention that kids who watch violence on TV grow up to be violent adults. As he points out, after about 40 or more years of research on the subject, the conclusions are still tentative. Note however that when psychologists (who are almost all Left-leaning) report on the effects of pornography on those who view it they almost always say "no effect". But when they report on the effects of viewing violence, they usually conclude "there was an effect". Could it be that Leftists are not bothered by pornography but do like to deplore violence? Could it be that the conclusions of Leftist researchers are dictated by their ideology? It certainly could. That researchers tend to find what they expect to find has a name, in fact. It is called the "Rosenthal effect".

Note also that there is an old Freudian theory of "catharsis" -- which in the present case would indicate that watching violence "gets it out of your system" and so helps you to avoid actually doing any violence yourself.

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ANTI-COMMUNIST ASSASSINATED

Serbia's prime minister _ who spearheaded the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000 _ was assassinated Wednesday by gunmen who ambushed him outside government headquarters. More here

Leftists certainly do not like people who topple their dictators -- though they seem to be trying to blame the deed on "criminal gangs" at the moment.

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BEING "WRONG" ON RACE CAN SEND YOU TO PRISON

"It is my understanding that Americans are currently being softened up for the introduction of so-called "hate laws" - legislation similar to that existing in Canada and most Western European countries, which makes it illegal to say, write, publish or distribute anything which could be construed as stirring up "racial hatred" against an ethnic group. I have actually served a term of imprisonment in Britain under such a law, and Americans may find my experiences instructive.

The judge at our trial exhibited the typical do-gooder liberal attitudes in this respect. He could not possibly gainsay, and therefore condemn someone for saying, that blacks perform intellectually at a lower level than whites. At the same time his emotions could not bear the thought that this state of affairs was unchangeable and not capable of remedy by education and social engineering. The first thought was just about acceptable to him; the second was not. It is essential to the liberal's faith in his ability to guide people forward that he have the capacity to lift up the low by civic action, whatever their depressed condition. Offend that faith, and you make the liberal very angry!"

More detail here

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NEW BLOG

Peter Cuthbertson thought that a blog devoted solely to documenting the many idiocies of political correctness (which generally means Leftist correctness) might be an entertaining site for people to bookmark. So he and I have started up http://pcwatch.blogspot.com. Have a look and see what you think. And do draw my attention to any examples of political correctness that you think I should note on the blog.

Some readers have reported problems in getting the blog to come up -- presumably because the blogspot servers were overloaded -- so you may have to try more than once to view it.

The best comment I have got from a reader about it so far is: "Do we laugh or cry?"

Another reader was so depressed at the nonsense he read about on PC Watch that he wrote to me as follows:

When I retire in a few years, I think that I will move to Wyoming, Montana or even to upstate Idaho. PC is unimportant there and you are what you are and can say what you please. As long as you know how to use your "shooter".

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“LA BELLE FRANCE”

There is a HUGE Anti-French diatribe here. It IS very hard to see anything excusable in current French policy. They just hate us Anglo-Saxons and that is it. They are now getting it back too. Not clever of them.

A good reply to Mr Chirac: "Apart from securing American independence, ending slavery, and defeating Nazism and Communism, war has never solved anything". (Via Conservative Commentary)

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ELSEWHERE

Chris Brand has a post on political nakedness and speculates that Tony Blair is about to take over the British Tories.

Michael Darby has an excerpt from V.D. Hanson showing that dealing with Iraq, Afghanistan and Al Qaeda are all parts of one war.

The Wicked one has some fun posts about assorted stupidity.

Today's academic paper from my past is here. I examine a paper by a Leftist psychologist who tries to find evidence that racists are maladjusted. I point out that he fails to do so and also point out that there is plenty of evidence in the psychological literature to show that racism is in fact normal.

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Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my home page here or here to get a new blog address.

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The latest “Carnival of the Vanities” is now up at The Daily Rant.

DENYING STALIN

I am still having a bit of a chuckle about my Leftist correspondent here (post of 6th March) who denies that Stalin was a Leftist. I wonder how long it will take before that becomes a common Leftist claim? Given the Leftist talent for denial and dishonesty, I doubt that it will take them long. “Since he was such a nasty man, he CANNOT have been a Leftist” will be the drift of it.

There is however some truth in my correspobndent’s claim that Stalin was in fact a Fascist. I pointed that out myself in “Front Page” of 22 October 2002. The twist though is that Fascism was founded by Mussolini -- who was both a Marxist and an intimate of Lenin! Fascism is simply the most nationalist version of extreme Leftism and Stalin did became strongly nationalistic during World War II. So even making Stalin a Fascist still leaves him as a Leftist! No matter how much the Leftists twist and turn, history is MOST inconvenient to them.

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CULTURES OF CONSENSUS

Inappropriate Response has a long discussion of whether the USA has a culture of argument -- compared with an Asian culture of consensus. I think the idea to be largely true but would very much challenge the notion that Europe is in the Asian camp. One example given was of a Dutchman seeking consensus but all the Dutchmen I know are are a blunt, individualistic and unbending lot -- a world away from the Japanese. And I think that Americans are very keen not to ruffle feathers too. Australians are MUCH blunter and more forthright than Americans. So much so that American politeness is often seen as rather dishonest here in Australia.

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MODERN TABOOS

In the past, many of the the strongest taboos regarded sexual matters. One can read almost the entire body of Victorian literature without seeing any explicit mention of that activity which enables the human race to reproduce itself, and which is a major preoccupation of the majority of human beings. Today, one can freely discuss most sexual topics in public.

A major taboo in today's world concerns any mention of genetic differences between the races, even when it is made plain that the differences are statistical rather than universal. The politically correct view is that the only physical difference between Negros and Caucasians lies in the color of their skin. There are, of course, many other statistical differences between the physical attributes of blacks and whites. (For example: eye color, hair color, amount of body hair, age at menarche, and frequency of fraternal twins.) But the most serious taboo regards any suggestion that the well-known racial difference in average IQs is even partly due to genetic factors.

More here

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LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE ON RACE

Black Intelligence in White Society is a clear-eyed, methodical account of what the presence of large numbers of blacks means for the United States. The author, writing under the pseudonym of Stanley Burnham, explains how employment, education, law enforcement, and welfare programs have all been strained nearly to the breaking point to accommodate a group that cannot, on average, meet the cognitive standards that European civilization requires.

Those accommodations have been made in awkward, often destructive ways because our country refuses to face the fact that racial differences in achievement are due largely to heredity rather than to environment. The first part of this book is therefore an overview of the evidence for a genetic explanation of racial differences.

More here

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ADAMS LIKES AMERICA!

Amazing! Australia’s best-known Left-wing pundit, Phillip Adams has just said that he is not anti-American. And he gives a long list of the things he likes about America. He says he is just anti-Bush -- which as a Leftist he would have to be. I never thought I would find Phillip refreshing but I quite liked what he said about the US. When there is so much real anti-Americanism about, it is rather heartening to find that even one of Australia’s most one-eyed Leftists does actually like America.

Many Leftists really ARE anti-American.

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ELSEWHERE

This heading gave me a laugh: BLIX HIDES SMOKING GUN

Chris Brand looks at the explanation for black backwardness given by a black sociologist and notes how all the explanations fall flat if we note that the problems of blacks in the USA are very similar to the problems of blacks in Africa.

Michael Darby has a letter from East Timor reporting progress there.

Today's academic paper from my past is here. I examine the work of a very Leftist psychologist who tries to find evidence that Leftism is better for you psychologically, fails to do so and then draws that conclusion anyhow! Leftists don’t let evidence or the lack of it hold them up! Such a nonsensical paper would never get published in a truly scientific journal but psychology is so heavily dominated by Leftism that science flies out the window whenever Leftist beliefs come under scrutiny.

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Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my home page here or here to get a new blog address.

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AUSTRALIA IN THE THICK OF THE WAR

A lot of the world seems not to have got the point that the US/UK moves against Iraq are defensive and preventive -- designed to prevent horror weapons from finding their way into the hands of anti-Western terrorists. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair have repeatedly done their best to get that message across but -- for whatever reason -- many people do not seem to get the point.

It is therefore heartening that Australian Prime Minister John Howard is also adding his voice to the debate in trying to get the message across. As it says in today’s papers: John Howard has laid out an effective blueprint for war in Iraq, arguing the world must unite now to disarm Saddam Hussein or face the proliferation of global terrorism.

We also read: Australian troops are almost certain to march into war against Iraq without United Nations backing. Prime Minister John Howard warned of "very serious consequences with or without UN Security Council backing" if Iraq failed to fully disarm.

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THE U.N.

"More than half a century of experience shows that the UN is a theater of hypocrisy, a sink of corruption, a street market of sordid bargains and a seminary of cynicism." --Paul Johnson

Via The Federalist

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LIBERTARIANISM AND TERRORISM

Useful Fools has written an interesting article on the implications of international terrorism for individual liberty. Extreme libertarians (anarcho-capitalists) will disagree violently with his view that international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction make government action and reduced privacy rights necessary for the survival of a good society but I think that minimal Statists and most conservatives will agree with him.

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FRENCH NAZIS

The amazing things you read when you take an interest in history:

The defenders of the last Nazi perimeter in Berlin, around the ruined chancellery and Hitler's bunker, were Frenchmen. They were survivors from the Waffen-SS Charlemagne Division, a handful of battle-hardened French Fascists who now took on the full strength of two converging tank armies in a blatantly hopeless struggle. With them, in the remnants of the Nordland Division - also Waffen-SS - were young Danes and Norwegians, still with a few heavy tanks. Hitler and Goebbels were dead, and most remaining German troops had wisely melted away, but the Frenchmen fought on in the wreckage of Gestapo headquarters.

More here

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CHINESE INTERNET CENSORSHIP SLOWS ACCESS

China’s internet users are suffering sharp slowdowns in access because of the communist government's heightened efforts to police online content, industry experts say. Beijing has essentially built an online barrier around China, requiring traffic in and out to pass through just eight gateways.

More here

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