IN MEMORIAM: Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (1911 - 2005)

I think all my Australian readers will know who "Joh" was but I would be surprised if any of my American readers do. Joh was for nearly 20 years Premier of my home State of Queensland. An Australian Premier is much more powerful than an American State Governor because he controls both the legislature and the administration. Australia seems to get on perfectly well without the American docrine of the separation of powers and, in a famous remark, Joh once revealed that he did not even know what the separation of powers referred to.

Joh led the National Party -- of which I was a member -- and was pro-business to a fault. As a result, Queensland saw an unprecedented rise in prosperity under his rule. During his time in office, Brisbane (the Queensland State capital) seemed to make the national news as often as Canberra (the national capital) because of Joh's total disregard for all Leftist pieties. In 1974, he gained a remarkable 59% of the popular vote. He was a great Queenslander and I miss him.

There are obits of him here and here. I have a previous comment on him here

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THE LEFTIST RELIANCE ON ABUSE

It's horribly fascinating to see the way the Left in our society rely on torrents of abuse as a substitute for rational argument. Take this excerpt from a Leftist review of Thomas Friedman's latest book (Friedman is a conservative-leaning New York Times columnist):

"Thomas Friedman does not get these things right even by accident. It's not that he occasionally screws up and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It's that he always screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius. The difference between Friedman and an ordinary bad writer is that an ordinary bad writer will, say, call some businessman a shark and have him say some tired, uninspired piece of dialogue: Friedman will have him spout it. And that's guaranteed, every single time. He never misses. On an ideological level, Friedman's new book is the worst, most boring kind of middlebrow horseshit. If its literary peculiarities could somehow be removed from the equation, The World Is Flat would appear as no more than an unusually long pamphlet replete with the kind of plug-filled, free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought in this country".

That passage is virtually information-free. There may be facts behind it but the passage itself tells us nothing factual. It is mere abuse. And the review goes on like that at great length. There is the occasional fact mentioned but never any attempt at a balanced evaluation of the fact concerned. I have myself been the object of similar rage-filled tirades from Leftist bloggers recently. There may be shreds of rational argument somewhere among the rage but "shreds" is the word. One hardly needs do more than spell out the argument in order to expose its absurdity -- as David Boxenhorn has shown. But if I were a Leftist, I guess I would have to write in a similar irrational way. When the facts are so much against you, what is left but rage? But reading these diatribes of rage and hate does certainly explain the horrors that happen when Leftists gain unrestricted power (i.e. in Communist regimes).

And note this fact-free rant about Christian conservatives:

"They are the Theocrats, the Christian Taliban right here in America, and they are deadly dangerous both to this nation and the world entire. These people do not in any way represent mainstream Christianity, yet sadly they are redefining the meaning of that faith across the board. They would annihilate all that America has stood for these last two hundred years to 'save' the nation, literally as far as they are concerned, and right now, they believe they have the power to get everything they want."

And this comment from Powerline also shows how the Left rejoice in hate rather than in reason:

"How Sick Can the Left Get? I don't know, but we haven't hit bottom yet. A reader called me to point out this sickening display on Cafe Press. American political history is often not pretty. But I don't think we have ever experienced anything remotely approaching the current descent of liberals into hate. Not only hate, but weird hate. And it will continue until voters definitively reject the Democratic Party. Another reader points out this one. There is no depth to which the American left will not sink."

What I have noted above is of course far from entirely new. Around 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt was a "Progressive", but a decent one. Some of his wise words: "It is no impossible dream to build up a civilization in which morality, ethical development, and a true feeling of brotherhood shall all alike be divorced from false sentimentality, and from the rancorous and evil passions which, curiously enough, so often accompany professions of sentimental attachment to the rights of man .... The good citizen must be a good citizen of his own country first before he can with advantage be a citizen of the world at large".

(A short version of this post appeared on Blogger News yesterday)

UPDATE

I have come across some amusing confirmation of my observations about the Leftist diatribe against Friedman above: I am not a regular reader of the NYT -- to put it mildly. It is The Times of London that I read regularly. And I am certainly not a regular reader of Thomas Friedman. Links that I put up here to NYT articles are ones suggested to me by my readers. So when I read the diatribe against Friedman by Taibbi there was so much rage and abuse in it that the only information I could glean from it was that Friedman probably uses metaphors badly, that Friedman sometimes espouses conservative causes and that Taibbi has at least some Leftist views. All the rest seemed mere abuse with no real information content at all. And the immoderateness of what Taibbi said made even his few points of information about Friedman suspect -- which is why I described Friedman as conservative-LEANING rather than conservative. So the essence of what I pointed to in the Taibbi article was its devotion to abuse rather than rational argument. I note however that two conservative bloggers (Taranto and Powerline) have praised the Taibbi article. And from reading Powerline in particular I now understood what was worthy of derision in Friedman -- that his use of metaphors is indeed often bad and that he is a shallow thinker generally. Because Powerline and Taranto knew Friedman's writings, they needed no information about him from Taibbi. They simply approved of Taibbi being derogatory about him. So my point about the article by Taibbi being just a rage outburst with only marginal information content stands well confirmed.

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ELSEWHERE

Do-gooders can't face facts: "The World Social Forum (WSF) meetings in Porto Alegre, Brazil, last January brought together nearly 130,000 people to hear more than 350 policy proposals about subjects as diverse as hunger, weapons proliferation, child abuse, and "globalization" in the developing world. Yet although the meetings' attendees fancied themselves as cutting-edge humanitarians fighting the good fight against poverty and injustice, their proposals have little chance of improving the everyday lives of the poor and disenfranchised because the WSF participants failed to challenge the root causes of underdevelopment and social marginalization... Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, for example, said nothing about the government restrictions and political cronyism that hamper local entrepreneurs.... we could say that those who participated in the latest World Social Forum represent countries underdeveloped by their own hand, because they used all the tools of the State available to them to hinder and prevent the indispensable process of capital accumulation and wealth creation."

Politics causes unemployment : "Whenever government forcibly raises employment costs it causes marginal labor, that is, labor that barely covers its costs, to become submarginal. It does not matter whether government orders wage rates to rise or benefits to be improved, the workday to be shortened, overtime pay to be raised, funds to be set aside for sickness and old age, or any other benefit to be granted. A small boost renders few workers submarginal, a large boost affects many. In matters of employment they now are 'unproductive' and cannot be used economically."

More people haters: "Last week the world celebrated an historic medical research milestone, the 50th anniversary of the polio vaccine. But Hollywood glitterati — including Alec Baldwin, Noah Wyle and Emmylou Harris — dishonored that life-saving moment by celebrating another milestone — the 20th birthday of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). This is an organization which opposes the very research that made the polio breakthrough possible. In 1949, Science magazine explained to readers that animals (including mice, oxen and rhesus monkeys) were needed in every phase of polio research.... Animal research has led to vaccines for rabies, smallpox, rubella, measles and anthrax. Insulin diabetics owe their quality of life to animal models — which also brought us heart bypasses, organ transplants and the minimally invasive surgical techniques we now take for granted. Throw it all out, says the Physicians Committee.... If this anti-science position sounds familiar, it should. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) — those protest-happy lunatics who believe your life is worth no more than that of a cow or a chicken — have a sympathetic take on nearly every message PCRM promotes"

Pejman has some good shots at the latest subterfuge of the Leftist authoritarians who want to make our decisions for us. They call it "libertarian paternalism" but that's just typical Leftist verbal magic. There's nothing libertarian about it. Their claim is that too much choice is bad for you. Even if that were so, too much government would certainly be even worse for you.

Good news: The serial litigator who tried to set up the Wendy's restaurants with a story about a severed finger found in a bowl of chili has now been arrested.

The Amtrak disaster summarized: "Amtrak, the nation's troubled passenger railroad, might as well have been in a train wreck..... Supporters of Amtrak insist that cutting its federal lifeline would kill passenger train travel. To the contrary. Three decades of crisis, including this month's Acela fiasco, demonstrate that a new approach is needed."

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows Engels mocking "niggers".

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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SOME MEDICAL NOTES

Was the first mad cow French? (A triumph for all those EU health regulations?) "The brain of a French woman who died in 1971 shows evidence consistent with human mad cow disease, United Press International has learned, a finding that if confirmed would indicate the deadly disease began infecting people more than 20 years earlier than previously thought. A former National Institutes of Health scientist said he tested the woman's brain in 2000 and it showed a pattern that looked like variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- a fatal, brain-wasting illness humans can contract from eating beef products infected with the pathogen that causes mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. VCJD was unheard of in 1971. The first recognized case was detected in the United Kingdom in 1995, so if the French woman did indeed suffer from vCJD, the case would shift the origins of the disease back more than two decades and possibly to a different country.... The pattern on the test "was more like BSE than CJD," Johnson said, noting he never saw a pattern like that in the hundreds of other brains from CJD patients he had tested.... A recent report published in the journal Veterinary Research estimated that from 1980 to 2000 more than 300,000 cattle were infected with BSE in France, yet went undetected."

Medical effects of "non-existent" race: "At least 29 medications have varying effects in different racial or ethnic populations, says biologist David B. Goldstein of the University College London. In the November 2004 Nature Genetics, he and his colleague Sarah K. Tate gave a detailed account of these treatments, which range from antipsychotics to cancer-chemotherapy drugs..... Genetic traits do appear to underlie some differences in disease susceptibility and response to therapies. For example, researchers have noted for years that because of differences in enzyme activity, people of Asian descent metabolize cholesterol-lowering statin drugs more slowly than other people do. As a result, some studies suggest, Asians are more susceptible to side effects at a given dose of statins. FDA recently advised physicians not to administer the highest allowed dose of one such drug, rosuvastatin (Crestor), to people of Asian ancestry."

Marvellous news: "The invisible "chain of transmission" of rubella virus has been broken in the United States. With it disappears a disease that a little more than a generation ago struck fear in the heart of every pregnant woman. Fewer than 10 people a year in this country now contract the infection known popularly as German measles. Since 2002, all cases have been traceable to foreigners who carried the virus in from abroad".

Arnold Kling has a properly cautious look at the reasons why Americans spend much more on health care than Europeans do. The one really well-substantiated difference seems to be that Americans on average get much more health care than Europeans do. Spending months and years on waiting lists -- which is normal in socialized medicine systems -- is certainly a good way of cutting down on the total amount of care that people get. People can (and do) die while waiting for an appointment. For examples, see SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

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ELSEWHERE

Non-existent French ethics: "During a state visit to China, French Premier Raffarin threw support behind a law allowing China to attack Taiwan and continued to push for a lift of the EU arms embargo".

Pirate Ballerina is a clearing-house of information about the apparently unsackable academic liar Ward Churchill. And Drunkablog has more information about Pirate Ballerina.

Blithering Bunny has just put up a big post defending supply-side economics against attacks from a Leftist economic illiterate. No defence of tax cuts will ever convince Leftists, though.

The new Pope: "In choosing Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has cast a vote for the survival of Europe and the West. "Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century," historian Bernard Lewis predicted not long ago; however, judging from the writings of the new Pope, he is not likely to be sanguine about this transition. For one thing, the new Pope seems to be aware of the grave danger Europeans face: he has called upon Europe to recover its Christian roots "if it truly wants to survive.""

A Jewish answer to slurs against the Pope: "Ratzinger's membership in the Hitler Youth was not voluntary but compulsory; also admitted are the facts that the cardinal -- only a teenager during the period in question -- was the son of an anti-Nazi policeman, that he was given a dispensation from Hitler Youth activities because of his religious studies, and that he deserted the German army. ... As prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger played an instrumental role in the Vatican's revolutionary reconciliation with the Jews under John Paul II. He personally prepared Memory and Reconciliation, the 2000 document outlining the church's historical 'errors' in its treatment of Jews. And as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, Ratzinger oversaw the preparation of The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, a milestone theological explanation for the Jews' rejection of Jesus. If that's theological anti-Semitism, then we should only be so lucky to 'suffer' more of the same"

I have put up a note on my SCRIPTURE BLOG about the scriptural basis for the Papacy.

Bankruptcy bill now law: "George Bush on Wednesday signed the biggest rewrite of US bankruptcy law in a quarter of a century, making it harder for debt-ridden Americans to wipe out their obligations. "Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system," Bush said. "If someone does not pay his or her debts the rest of society ends up paying them." Many debtors will have to work out repayment plans instead of having their obligations erased in bankruptcy court under the law, which will go into effect in six months".

Bankruptcy abuse: "The key fact in the U.S. debate is that bankruptcy filings have been doubling every decade for nearly three decades. The abundant supply of credit is not matched by an abundance of personal responsibility in current bankruptcy law. Do the critics really believe Congress should do nothing and let the problem continue to fester? .... Critics would have you believe that the bankruptcy legislation will curtail risk-taking, but make no mistake: runaway bankruptcies are not a sign of healthy entrepreneurship. As Richard Posner points out on the Becker-Posner blog, the bill's most important likely effect is "to reduce interest rates." The hurdle to obtain capital and start a business will therefore be easier, meaning more new companies, and more job creation, not less. There were nearly 1.6 million consumer bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2004. Yet in 1980, there were only 300,000 bankruptcies. You don't have to be a bankruptcy expert to recognize that trend reveals a problem. The stunning fact is that there are more bankruptcies per capita today than there were during the Great Depression."

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Marx supported black slavery in America.

I am following a particularly nasty public medicine disgrace on SOCIALIZED MEDICINE at the moment.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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AN AGGRESSIVE PEACENIK

I get a fair bit of email from Leftists, most of it purely abusive. The writers obviously cannot think that abuse will persuade me of anything so I take such emails as showing that the writers have such a strong hatred in them that it just has to be expressed. Many Leftist bloggers are no different. Ever since I pointed out some slippery standards in his writing, Mr Hatespeech (a.k.a. "antiwar" blogger Liberal Avenger) has frothed rage at me on a couple of occasions. I replied to his latest outburst of hatepeech two days ago and in the course of my reply mentioned his real name -- Brian MacKenzie. Yesterday I got an email from him that read: "Thanks for posting my name, shitbag. I thought you'd enjoy this". Since I found his name via a quick net search that anyone could have done, I see that email as yet another outburst of irrational rage. The site he referred me to is written by a Leftist friend of his who spouts a great torrent of unsubstantiated and hate-filled Leftist assertions but it also includes reference to a "friend" identified only as "B" who is said to own 40 handguns. The post also goes on to say:

"The one thing I think many a liberal is wrong on is reflexively renouncing violence in all cases. Violence is a very, very bad thing. We don't like violence. Boo violence. But you know when people say that violence is no way to solve problems? Bullshit: It's often a great way to solve problems. Yes, some people can be talked to, and are responsive to reason. Violence should not be a first recourse, but that doesn't change the fact that some people really need to be beaten to death with a length of closet pole. Obviously I'm being facetious: You'd only use a length of closet pole if you had nothing else handy."

That I was referred to that particular site is rather Delphic but perhaps I am meant to infer that "B" stands for "Brian" (MacKenzie) and that I am in danger of the violence that the author of the site threatens. The more contact one has with such people the easier it is to recognize how close to the surface of allegedly "compassionate" and "antiwar" Leftism is the sort of real hatred and violence that was exhibited by such monsters as Stalin and Pol Pot. That they have such conflicting motivations shows how messed-up their heads are, though.

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

Che Guevara at the Oscars: Che Guevara, the toast of the Oscars, was a cowardly sadistic thug who murdered children. But as far as Hollywood leftwing dipsticks like Robert Redford are concerned, his murderous heart was in the right place
Unions, unemployment and minimum wage rates: The unions and their media allies' defence of minimum wage rates neatly illustrate their intellectual bankruptcy
Social security and the New York Times dishonest propaganda: How the New York Times deliberately misleads its readers over social security reform
US economy: the Great Depression and interest rates: Economics is a subject plagued with fallacies, ill-informed commentary and historical myths, especially concerning the Great Depression
Why oil price hikes cannot cause inflation: It is a tragedy that so many of our economic and financial commentators are so ignorant of economic history as well as Austrian developments in monetary and capital theory

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ELSEWHERE

Peacenik logic doesn't work: "The grad student shot in a home-invasion horror on the Upper West Side is a peace activist who hails from a small Pennsylvania town and moved to the Big Apple only last year, friends said yesterday. Keith Whitmoyer, a 24-year-old philosophy student at the New School, is battling lung and stomach wounds in St. Luke's Hospital after Sunday's vicious attack. He was shot in front of his terrified fianc,e after a thug followed her into their building on West 108th Street and pushed his way into the apartment, demanding cash. After robbing the pair, the burglar appeared to linger, prompting Whitmoyer to ask, "Are you going to shoot me now?" The thug then pumped three bullets into him".

Leftist hypocrisy about the Darfur genocide: "Remember how exercised everyone around the world was about crimes committed at Abu Ghraib? Infinitely worse deeds are being done in Darfur daily. Where's the outrage? The street rallies that might spur Western governments into action? Aside from a handful of journalists and human rights activists, the only Westerners who've shown sustained interest in Sudan are evangelical Christians, who've been exercised primarily about the fate of their coreligionists in the south. The silence of the "antiwar" masses speaks volumes about their priorities"

Odd that! Private screeners outdo public ones: "A congressional investigation found airport screeners employed by private companies do a better job detecting dangerous objects than government screeners, according to a House member who has seen the classified report. The Government Accountability Office found statistically significant evidence that passenger screeners, who work at five airports under a pilot program, perform better than their federal counterparts at some 450 airports, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. and chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said on Tuesday."

Tennessee: Senate panel endorses fetal personhood law: "The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved legislation to expand the definition of a person to include an unborn baby. Tennessee would join 18 other states including Kentucky and Virginia that currently protect unborn children, bill sponsor Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) said. 'These are unborn children at any stage of gestation,' Jackson said. 'The bill will extend protection if a wrongdoer commits an assault against a mother who is carrying an unborn child that results in the loss of the life of that fetus.' ... Sen. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) cast the only 'no' vote, expressing concern that someone could be charged with murder at the night of conception. 'I mean the sperm and the egg have just met,' Cohen said. ... A fetus would have to be able to survive outside of the mother's womb before a perpetrator who killed the mother could face charges for double murder."

Waco: Remembering 4/19: "The Israeli government took sixteen years to track down Adolph Eichman at the little house in Buenos Aires where he had retired from a long and productive career of burning, gassing and machine-gunning Jews. How long will it take us to put U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno behind bars where she belongs? Six years after the literal holocaust at Waco, Reno remains at large. When Hezbollah or Hammas claim responsibility for an act of terrorism, our officials piously vow to track them down and exact retribution, whatever the cost. When one of those same officials claims responsibility for the fiery deaths of 80 people, including twice as many children as Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold murdered at Columbine High School, she goes on to become the longest-serving Attorney General in the history of our nation."

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Engels approved of antisemitism.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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BEST WISHES TO POPE BENEDICT XVI

His views are well-known and he will be a great defender of his church against the white-anting from within that is its major threat. His early election is a tribute to the already great authority he held within the church. From a news report:

A delirious crowd of around 100,000 cheered and waved wildly as Ratzinger, the 265th pontiff in the Church's 2000-year history, smiled and acknowledged the applause from the curtain-draped balcony of Saint Peter's basilica. His first words were met by a huge ovation. "Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II the cardinals have elected me a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord," he said, paying tribute to his immediate predecessor. The announcement that the 115 cardinals sequestered inside the Sistine had chosen a new pontiff on only the second day of their conclave came when white smoke billowed out of a chimney atop the Vatican.... The election by a two-thirds majority came in a fourth round of voting that had begun when the 115 cardinals sequestered themselves into the chapel for their conclave. The Pope now has the onerous burden of guiding the Church into a new era fraught with moral dilemmas and dissension over a host of issues ranging from emptying pews to contraception and celibacy. A close confidant of John Paul II, he shared his conservative views.

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ELSEWHERE

Immigrants and the pledge: "A child of two immigrants is leading a charge in the General Assembly to require our children in state schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The bill is currently in a Senate committee, but lawmakers from both sides of the isle [aisle?] showed their support for the legislation at a press conference Thursday. They are 31 words of loyalty and devotion to one's country and God. They have sparked controversy and debate when used in the classroom, but the Pledge of Allegiance could soon be required in a North Carolina public school near you. "This is something in the will of God, I think this is something that really has to be done." Apex sophomore, Julian Quesada is on a mission, pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that would require students to recite the pledge. "I think it will instill in their minds a sense of national self preservation which I think might be lacking in this country as a whole in the youth of America." Quesada has no shortage of patriotism. He is a first generation American taught to honor his country from his Costa Rican father and Argentinean mother, Adriana Quesada. "We've always instilled in him, both our boys, you don't take things for granted. This is a privilege to live here.""

Whoopee! Caltech student sentenced to more than 8 years for SUV arson: A graduate student was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution for firebombing scores of sport utility vehicles. William Jensen Cottrell, 24, was convicted in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson for an August 2003 vandalism spree that damaged and destroyed about 125 SUVs. Prosecutors estimated the total damage was about $2.3 million. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sentenced Cottrell to 100 months and ordered him to pay $3.5 million in restitution. Cottrell hung his head upon hearing the sentence..... Cottrell was arrested in March 2004 after authorities tracked e-mails that Cottrell, using an alias, sent to the Los Angeles Times. He told the newspaper in the e-mails that he was involved in the SUV attacks and affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front.

"Liberals" show their anti-democratic mentality: "Five Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democrats, were charged Monday with the election day tire slashings of 25 get-out-the-vote vehicles rented by Republicans. Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced the felony charges each of which could result in a 3 1/2-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine - in a rare news conference. This isn't what goes on all the time in Wisconsin, McCann said. I dont think that it takes a great deal of acumen to estimate what the intent was. The men charged with flattening 40 tires include Michael Pratt, 32, the son of former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, and Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee)." [Note some more attacks that happened around the same time]

The enormous cost of litigation: The swelling trial law industry in the United States could soon cost each family of four $4,000 each year, according to a trio of tort reform advocates speaking in San Francisco Thursday. The experts were on hand at the Westin St. Francis Hotel to discuss the findings of Trial Lawyers Inc., California, a report on the lawsuit industry in the state conducted by the Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank. "Civil justice costs $246 billion year - money all of us pay in lawsuit taxes," said Steven Hantler, assistant general counsel at DaimlerChrysler Corp. and a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. During the panel discussion, also sponsored by the Pacific Research Institute, Hantler and his colleagues detailed far-reaching consequences of excessive litigation on businesses, construction, investors and the public."

Anything would be an improvement on the previous bureaucracy: "Florida has become the first state in the nation to fully privatize its child welfare programs, after signing a $75 million contract to hand over those responsibilities in its last two counties. The deal Friday with Our Kids Inc. gives the group the right to handle all foster care, adoption and child welfare licensing operations in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, where about 5,000 children are now under state care. "The entire state will now benefit from qualified experts that are equipped to know and meet the needs of their communities," Department of Children and Families Secretary Lucy Hadi said. The effort has been a cornerstone of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to improve the state's troubled child protection system".

A Leftist says the Left are on the wrong side of history: "How has it happened that the Left of politics across the world has ended up opposing a foreign policy philosophy of spreading democracy in favour of supporting the traditional conservative agenda of stability, sovereignty and the status quo? Because that is what the Left is doing in its hostile reaction to George W. Bush's second inaugural address.... Bush said in his second inaugural address: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." This is resonant of John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address in 1961, when he said: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." .... True, Bush and others are over-claiming progress and underestimating the dangers that lie ahead. We accept democracy as normal; it is not. Democracy is the most radical and revolutionary political idea in the world.... The key thing for those on the Left to understand is that intense dislike of Bush and echoes of Vietnam do not make a foreign policy. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Bolton - they too will pass. What will go on is the great human desire to be free, which should be at the core of our foreign policy. The great danger for the Left is that its Vietnam and Bush obsessions may mean that it will end up on the wrong side of history."

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows Engels being derogatory about Polish Jews.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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LEFTISM AS IRRATIONAL RAGE

How sad it must be to be a Leftist. They are so devoid of rationality and logic that, when someone disagrees with them, all they can do is spew abuse. A recent comment by a Leftist blogger (Brian MacKenzie, a.k.a. "Liberal Avenger") on one of my posts is a case in point -- a rather lengthy post with not a shred of rational argument in it -- just sustained hate-speech. Brian has obviously learnt nothing since my last comment about him.

David Horowitz on the incoherence of the Left: "Most people on the left, for example, embrace positions in advance of understanding either their rationale or implications, or attempting to square them with their progressive theories. How otherwise explain "compassionate" progressives who are opposed to the death penalty for serial killers of small children supporting the court-ordered killing of Terry Schiavo, a severely handicapped individual who committed no crime? How do we explain the determination of progressives to defend a dictator, and oppressor of women, gays and minorities, like Saddam Hussein?"

Some comments by a certain cover girl on Leftist "intellectualism": "Liberals enjoy claiming that they are intellectuals, thrilled to engage in a battle of wits. This, they believe, distinguishes them from conservatives, who are religious fanatics who react with impotent rage to opposing ideas. As one liberal, Jonathan Chait, put the cliche in the New Republic: Bush is an "instinctive anti-intellectual" and his administration hostile to "fact-driven debate."... I'm not sure how these descriptions square with the fact that liberals keep responding to conservative ideas by throwing food. (Remember the good old days when liberals' "fact-driven" ideas only meant throwing money at their problems?) Last October, two liberals responded to my speech at the University of Arizona - during question and answer, no less - by charging the stage and throwing two pies at me from a few yards away. Fortunately for me, liberals not only argue like liberals, they also throw like girls.... Unfortunately for them, Republican men don't react favorably to two "Deliverance" boys trying to sucker-punch a 110-pound female in a skirt and heels. The geniuses ended up with bloody noses and broken bones. It's really outrageous how conservatives respond to liberals who are just trying to engage in a "fact-driven debate." How typical of Republicans to go on the offensive just because a female has been physically attacked. Instead of capturing and subduing my attackers, those strong Republican men should have been trying to understand why they threw the pies.

What lies behind Leftist violence: "they return to their posture of primitive protesting -- a wild, speechless style of protest that throws light on liberalism's essential hostility to reason and morality. Why do liberals who regard themselves as apostles of Enlightenment reason resort so quickly to intimidation and primitive exertion of will? Because fundamentally liberalism is based not on reason but on force. It is a willfulness writ large that becomes more vivid as liberals lose power and fail to control a people unpersuaded by claims that find no basis in reality and thus cannot be calmly demonstrated by reason".

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RivrDog has some pretty scathing comments on Goldman Sachs -- saying that they were largely to blame for the 1929 stockmarket crash. He concludes that stockmarket investing is an unsafe destination for retirement funds and that real estate is a much better bet. I used to think that way myself and I still do own substantial real estate but seeing that my stockmarket investments (all in blue chips) have nearly doubled in value in the last 4 years, I am now much more positive about stocks. But I too would avoid any managed funds or stockbroker advice. There is far too much crookedness and self-serving there. Retirement savers should be allowed to invest in companies directly. If you invest in blue chips the few crashes will be greatly outnumbered by the gains. If GWB's retirement accounts ever become reality, the list of approved investments should be companies, not "funds".

A very graphic reminder here of what the Communist takeover of Cambodia led to.

Another defeat for socialism: It looks like the Airbus A380 superjumbo programme will be as big a loser for the European taxpayer as the Concorde was.

Theodore Dalrymple has a big essay on the degradation of the character of the British people that socialism has brought about: "Hayek thought he had observed an important change in the character of the British people, as a result both of their collectivist aspirations and of such collectivist measures as had already been legislated. He noted, for example, a shift in the locus of people's moral concern. Increasingly, it was the state of society or the world as a whole that engaged their moral passion, not their own conduct. "It is, however, more than doubtful whether a fifty years' approach towards collectivism has raised our moral standards, or whether the change has not rather been in the opposite direction," he wrote. "Though we are in the habit of priding ourselves on our more sensitive social conscience, it is by no means clear that this is justified by the practice of our individual conduct." In fact, "It may even be . . . that the passion for collective action is a way in which we now without compunction collectively indulge in that selfishness which as ind! ividuals we had learnt a little to restrain." Thus, to take a trifling instance, it is the duty of the city council to keep the streets clean; therefore my own conduct in this regard is morally irrelevant-which no doubt explains why so many young Britons now leave a trail of litter behind them wherever they go. If the streets are filthy, it is the council's fault"

Antisemitism among Leftist British academics: "Union delegates calling for a boycott of Israeli academics were condemned yesterday by the Board of Deputies of British Jews for damaging the Middle East peace process. Jon Benjamin, the director-general of the board, said that a boycott would create an extra obstacle to peace at a time when Israelis and Palestinians are building bridges. The motion is to be debated this week by the Association of University Teachers (AUT). Closer links with the Palestinians will also be debated. Mr Benjamin said: "A boycott of Israeli academics, and Israeli academics alone, has worrying signs of anti-Semitism".

Does this dummy realize that her "good deed" is going to get high-risk borrowers (which minorities often are) denied loans altogether? "Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager on Saturday called for changes to state law to allow her office to seek remedies for black and Latino car buyers who are charged higher rates than their white counterparts for auto loans from dealers in Wisconsin".

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Marx approved of British rule over India.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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WHAT DOES "LIBERAL" MEAN?

Joe Engel thinks the term is now used in a way that is totally out of touch with what the term used to mean in the days of JFK, Truman and others. Some excerpts:

* Rooting against the United States and for "insurgents" who delight in slaughtering innocents is many things (stupid, for one, also sad, evil, and short-sighted), but it is assuredly not liberal.
* Decrying the American "religious right" for advocating a "culture of life" while simultaneously praising the neck-slicing Islamofascists is many things (start with pathetic), but it is not liberal.
* Calling 3,000 workers who died when the buildings fell "little Eichmanns" is many things (vile, as well as repulsive and morally repugnant), but it is not liberal.
* Marching against war every time the United States is involved--in fact only when the United States is involved--regardless of the war's purpose, is many things (reactionary for sure), but it is not liberal.
* Crying that you're being persecuted for exercising your right of free speech, when what happened was that other people less famous than you reacted to your ill-considered and offensive comments by exercising their own First Amendment rights, is many things (solipsistic comes to mind), but it is not liberal.
* Pretending that the abuses committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison were on a par with the wholesale torture, rape, and murder committed there over decades is many things (overwrought, unenlightened, an insult to intelligence), but it is not liberal.
* Depicting Condoleezza Rice in editorial cartoons as a big-lipped mammy who speaks Ebonics to her massa is many things (offensive, sickening), but it is not liberal.
* Marching if you're gay in support of "Palestine"--from which gay Palestinians try to escape to Israel before they're tortured and murdered for their sexual orientation--is many things (nuts, as well as hilariously ill-informed), but it is far from liberal.
* Equating Israeli self-defense measures against bombers who hide among civilians to the murders committed by the bombers who intentionally target civilians is many things (foolish, and probably anti-Semitic), but it is not liberal.
* Believing that ethnicity determines identity--and accusing anyone of being "a disgrace to his race" because his views fall outside what's considered orthodoxy--is many things (primarily racist), but it is definitely not liberal.
* Shouting down speakers in the name of free speech is many things (fascistic, tyrannical, churlish), but it is not liberal.
* Excusing Kofi Annan and the United Nations for the worst palm-greasing scandal in history--one that lengthened the reign of a tyrant and led to the deaths of countless thousands--is many things (inexcusable, also shameful), but it is not liberal.

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ELSEWHERE

Sowell: "Liberalism at one time referred to liberty, to making people as free as possible from the control of their presumed betters, and especially free of excessive control by the government. More broadly, liberals tended to favor change while conservatives defended the status quo. All that has been turned upside down. Liberals today are for preserving not only historic landmarks but also the status quo in the welfare state, obstructing the building of new housing, fighting against letting parental choice be introduced into the school system, and are digging in their heels against letting even a small fraction of Social Security be privatized. As for freedom from government controls, liberals have pushed ever more regulation of ever more details of people's homes and businesses. In some places where liberals have been politically dominant for years, you don't dare cut down a tree on your own property, even if it is about to fall over and smash your house or smash you. Whatever the merits or demerits of any of these policies, the liberal label would never fit if the word still meant what it once meant. Meanwhile, on the other end of the political spectrum, conservatives are pushing all sorts of sweeping changes. Milton Friedman is widely regarded as the epitome of conservatism, yet for 50 years he has been arguing for radical change in our school systems by providing vouchers to let parents choose where they want to send their children to school, whether public schools or private".

A blogger has caught out the The New York Times in a bit of deceptive reporting. The NYT portrayed a critic of Tom DeLay as a Republican when she in fact has a long history of Democrat sympathies. Where was that fact-checking that is supposed to make the MSM so superior to bloggers?

The Democrats generally are in a well-justified panic over new Supreme Court appointments. They love the existing judicial dictatorship. So it is no surprise that The L.A. Times gets it exactly backwards: "Now, the battle over the confirmation process has become enmeshed with this third and most extreme stage of conservative thinking. What we are seeing, for the first time, is a fundamental challenge to the rule of law itself". It's not the GOP that is undermining the rule of law. The GOP want the rule of law back. It is arrogant Left-leaning judges who have ignored the law and replaced it by rule of their own opinions that are the problem.

With relentless use of awkward facts, Andrew Bolt puts the boot into the sick Leftist claim that the late Pope killed people by opposing the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.

Socialism impoverishes even oil-rich Norway: "In Oslo, library collections are woefully outdated, and public swimming pools are in desperate need of maintenance. News reports describe serious shortages of police officers and school supplies. When my mother-in-law went to an emergency room recently, the hospital was out of cough medicine. Drug addicts crowd downtown Oslo streets, as The Los Angeles Times recently reported, but applicants for methadone programs are put on a months-long waiting list..... After I moved here six years ago, I quickly noticed that Norwegians live more frugally than Americans do. They hang on to old appliances and furniture that we would throw out. And they drive around in wrecks. In 2003, when my partner and I took his teenage brother to New York - his first trip outside of Europe - he stared boggle-eyed at the cars in the Newark Airport parking lot, as mesmerized as Robin Williams in a New York grocery store in "Moscow on the Hudson.""

V.D. Hanson has a good roundup of past Leftist "wisdom" about Iraq so that we don't forget how comprehensively wrong they were.

There is a pathetic Leftist anthropologist here who manages to compare America today with Cambodia under Pol Pot. If they can convince us that the socialist Hitler was a Rightist, anything is possible, I guess.

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Engels thought the French conquest of the North African Arabs to be a triumph for civilization.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER BLOG

I have started reading the blog associated with the Orange County Register newspaper recently. Like a lot of newspaper blogs it is more conservative than the paper it is associated with. With less managerial censorship hanging over their heads, even journalists can be surprisingly down-to-earth sometimes. I reproduce below a few recent excerpts that I liked. The headings are mine:

Health Fascists

"The American Lung Association, one of those mammoth, anti-freedom charities, now is pushing to ban smoking in your own apartment. The ALA "will roll out plans today to make smoke-free complexes more widespread." The article notes that apartment complexes already are offering more non-smoking areas. So why the campaign? Because these sorts of health campaigns always end up with legislation mandating no-smoking areas, then total smoking bans. Indeed, an L.A. councilman is sponsoring legislation to mandate non-smoking apartments. Pretty soon, tobacco is going to be as illegal as crack cocaine".

A good summary of FDR

"Today marks the 60th anniversary of one of the world's worst tyrants: Franklin "D. for Dictator" Roosevelt." Elected on a 1932 platform that promised to end the Great Depression with cuts in taxes, tariffs, government programs, and regulations, he did the opposite -- and extended and deepened the Great Depression. In 1935, he imposed on America a German- (as in Third Reich by way of Bismarck) retirement scheme, Socialist Security, which to this day has plagued young famlies with strangulating taxes and soon will go broke. In World War II, Franklin "D. for Dictator" allied closely with his good friend, Josef Stalin, affectionately dubbing him "Uncle Joe," to defeat Uncle Joe's own former close ally, Hitler. At the Yalta conference, FDR "gave" Uncle Joe Eastern Europe -- enslaving those people until the Berlin Wall fell.

Unions destroy business again

It's not just taxpayers who are footing the bill for out-of-control union pensions, but car buyers. Today's Wall Street Journal had an excellent column by Holman Jenkins Jr. on why GM cars are so awful and show no sign of getting better (except for Cadillac). Outdated engines, old-style transmissions, horrible styling, dreadful performance -- that summarizes GM. Only Caddy got a huge new infusion of dollars to allow it to compete with other companies. GM, according to Jenkins, dropped its plans for the new Zeta platform because it has to spend the bulk of its money paying up for pension deals that are busting the bank. GM isn't a car company, argues Jenkins, but a social welfare agency dedicated to providing benefits to retired union workers. And GM's market share fades away. A well deserved fate. Unfortunately, in the public sector, the taxpayer rather than the shareholder has to pay up to deal with monumental overpayments to government workers. Note that San Diego is facing bankruptcy because of pension deals, and city attorney Aguirre last week called for new taxes.

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ELSEWHERE

Blue Staters want to cut a tax that hits them: "Miracles happen, even to liberals, and the latest proof is their discovery of the horrors of the alternative minimum tax, or AMT. They've finally found a stealthy, soak-the-rich tax increase they don't like--and, better yet on this annual tax-payment day, their revelation may make tax reform possible. As our readers understand all too well, the AMT is a kind of IRS surprise double jeopardy. Claim too many deductions against a high income under the regular tax code, and the AMT sweeps you into its maw.... the AMT is biting hardest in the most liberal, high-tax states. That's because the AMT doesn't allow deductions for state and local taxes the way the regular code does. So middle-class taxpayers in New York, California and other states with high income-tax rates are getting hit sooner than people in, say, Florida or Wyoming. It is the ultimate blue-state tax. This helps to explain why people who normally thrill to higher tax rates are suddenly up in arms. Liberal newspapers are now denouncing the AMT as a "tax increase" and blaming the White House for not doing more to stop it. "The AMT needs to be fixed," moans Senator Barbara Boxer's spokesman, in what has to be a tax-reform first. "We need to address the AMT, which is trickling down to catch more and more middle-class families in New York," says Empire State Senator Chuck Schumer, another Saul on the road to Tarrytown".

Statement by a 1950s tax commissioner: "The income tax is bad because it has robbed you and me of the guarantee of privacy and the respect for our property that were given to us in Article IV of the Bill of Rights. This invasion is absolute and complete as far as the amount of tax that can be assessed is concerned. Please remember that under the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress can take 100% of our income anytime it wants to. As a matter of fact, right now it is imposing a tax as high as 91%. This is downright confiscation and cannot be defended on any other grounds. The income tax is bad because it was conceived in class hatred, is an instrument of vengeance and plays right into the hands of the communists. It employs the vicious communist principle of taking from each according to his accumulation of the fruits of his labor and giving to others according to their needs, regardless of whether those needs are the result of indolence or lack of pride, self-respect, personal dignity or other attributes of men. The income tax is fulfilling the Marxist prophecy that the surest way to destroy a capitalist society is by steeply graduated taxes on income and heavy levies upon the estates of people when they die."

A good article on the socialist origins of the income tax here

There is an interesting summary of the current big corruption scandal in Canadian politics here which foresees a new Canadian election soon. It looks like Canadian voters will be offered a choice between corrupt Liberals and pro-American Conservatives. Given the childish envies of many Canadians, it seems possible that they will choose corruption. By contrast, Australians feel perfectly confident of their own identity and culture and so envy no-one.

Moronic Leftist Senator: "President George W. Bush traveled April 5 to Parkersburg, West Virginia to visit the so-called Social Security Trust Fund: a filing cabinet filled with paper. "There is no trust fund - just IOUs," backed by no economic assets whatsoever, Bush noted. Senator Jon Corzine (D., N.J.) called the president's remarks misleading. In a conference call with journalists, Corzine said: "U.S. Treasury securities have the ability to be paid under any circumstances based on the ability of the government to print money." While Corzine's press secretary denies this comment was a concrete proposal, at this writing, the senator proudly highlights this quote on the front page of his website. So, as Corzine sees it, come 2041, when the federal government's plunging tax revenues will cover only 70 percent of its exploding pension obligations, Washington will trigger Treasury Department printing presses to finance Social Security checks. Inflating the currency is a dreadful idea that has landed much of Latin America in massive trouble. Like a latter-day Evita Peron, Corzine smiles upon the Argentine economic model: skyrocketing prices, a currency as disposable as Kleenex, and rising social chaos. Democrats have said many silly things in their crusade to scuttle President Bush's personal retirement accounts, but this must be the stupidest. And to think that Jon Corzine once ran Goldman Sachs! Corzine's statement has left economists aghast".

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows Marx managing to denigrate Jews and blacks all at once.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

The Left and John Paul II's Death How Phillip Adams and the ABC tried to diminish Pope John Paul II, even as he was being prepared for burial
Castro Spies on Hollywood Celebrities Has Castro blackmailed Hollywood celebrities like Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Kate Moss and Steven Spielberg into supporting his regime?
Clinton fuelled Beijing's militarism It is true that President Bush is no Clinton, for which the rest of the world - if it had any sense - would thank God. However, Beijing knows that eventually Democrats will regain the Oval Office
US economy: why the recession stumped Alan Greenspan With all the resources at his disposal Alan Greenspan felt forced to publicly admit that he did not know what was happening to the economy
The day the American Eagle was castrated There should be dignity in our passing.Terri Schiavo wasn't allowed that dignity. She wasn't even allowed last communion, or the comforting hands of a mother's love

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Message from David Horowitz (via email): "What happened at Butler: As I stepped to the podium, a group of four students -- juvenile delinquents, really -- rushed the stage and slammed a chocolate cream pie into my face. Fortunately my glasses weren't broken. Officials caught and arrested three of the students -- including a female who spewed racial epithets at Butler professor Marvin Scott, a good friend of mine and yours in this battle, and the Republican candidate for Senate in last November's election. There was nothing comedic about it. This attack was one in an increasing string of violence against conservative speakers. Ann Coulter, William Kristol and Pat Buchanan have suffered similar assaults as well in recent weeks. These assaults are in addition to leftist attacks on armed services and Homeland Security recruiters at campus job fairs in an effort to silence them, too. This type of thuggish behavior is not only being encouraged by radical faculty members who regularly deride conservatives and conservative students but tacitly condoned by school administrations that tolerate these acts, as well! This is precisely what you and I are fighting against! These students and their academic consorts are underscoring our point -- and they've taken to violence in response to the success of our National Campaign for Academic Freedom! But here is some great news! I received heartfelt apology from Butler University President Dr. Bobby Fong following the assault. Dr. Fong told me that contrary to what the mainstream media reports, there is widespread support in the academic community for our Academic Bill of Rights. Our opposition consists mainly of radical ideologues."

Another triumph of Dutch liberalism: "A survey has indicated that 32 percent of Dutch people want to emigrate abroad and that just 51 percent are proud of the Netherlands.... The research indicated that Dutch people think more positively about China than they do the Netherlands. Some 46 percent of people think negatively about the Netherlands, compared with 35 percent for China. A large amount of the spontaneous reactions over the Netherlands were negative. This was due to political developments, multiculturalism, over-population, criminality and socially distant people".

Blacks and Muslims in France despise French Leftists too: I noted this article on April 2nd. but lots of my readers have subsequently drawn my attention to it so perhaps I too should draw attention to it again. Excerpt: "On March 8, tens of thousands of high school students marched through central Paris to protest education reforms announced by the government. Repeatedly, peaceful demonstrators were attacked by bands of black and Arab youths--about 1,000 in all, according to police estimates. The eyewitness accounts of victims, teachers, and most interestingly the attackers themselves gathered by the left-wing daily Le Monde confirm the motivation: racism. Some of the attackers openly expressed their hatred of "little French people." One 18-year-old named Heikel, a dual citizen of France and Tunisia, was proud of his actions. He explained that he had joined in just to "beat people up," especially "little Frenchmen who look like victims." He added with a satisfied smile that he had "a pleasant memory" of repeatedly kicking a student, already defenseless on the ground".

Kissinger on the current scene: "When I started in government 35 years ago, one had many opponents. But there was a bedrock of people who were quite well informed at the outset of many of the aspects of the issues. But it's much less today. People take positions before they've studied the issues. Their views on issues reinforce set positions rather than the other way around.".... "When I was a graduate student and a young professor at Harvard, we used to have faculty seminars with scientists and political scientists and others to discuss the implications of the nuclear age," Mr. Kissinger said. "Most of them were Democrats, but the emphasis was national, not partisan. And it was never personal. Every point of view was welcomed."... But as the 1960s and 1970s evolved, he said, America's intellectual community split into two groups: "Job applicants - people who wanted government jobs- and revolutionaries, who denied that anything valid could be done unless the system was changed or destroyed. "It was really about access to power," Mr. Kissinger said. "It was no longer about access to ideas. The nature of the intellectual community has changed. If more and more see themselves as advocates rather than as generators and debaters of ideas, then it's a different society"

There is a categorized list of political blogs here that should be a good aid to finding your way around the blogosphere.

Another choice quote from far-Left cartoonist Ted Rall: "My theory is that essentially, people don't like to think they're living in a country that's led by an evil, dictatorial madman. But they are, they are living in Nazi Germany, in Stalinist Russia.". Les Bates has some appropriate comments. I think Ted would not be out of place in one of his own cartoons. He has long ago abandoned reality.

Patriot Act hysteria: "When the Patriot Act was introduced 45 days after the events of September 11, liberals were up in arms. They claimed that, in the hysteria which followed the attacks, a hasty policy was being passed which impeded upon the civil liberties of American citizens. For the next four years, the very mention of the Patriot Act incited anger or demeaning scoffs from the left. Now that this important piece of legislation is up for renewal, liberals cling to their same tired points of contention, all of which have been proven false during the years when the Patriot Act was in effect. The most controversial points of the legislation seem to the provisions that allow the FBI to expedite its proceedings by obtaining evidence before their search is authenticated by a court, the fear that governmental organizations would have access to information such as library and medical records, and the "delayed notification" policy in which the FBI is only required to provide a search warrant after searching a premises. While much of the information regarding the use of the Patriot Act must be kept quiet, the Justice Department has released the following information. The power to seize personal records has been used 35 times, none of which involved medical, library, bookstore or gun sale records. In addition, the delayed notification search warrants have been used only 115 times. The Justice Department also released information regarding specific instances when the Patriot Act has been used. In addition to preventing international terrorist attacks, the policy has been used to prevent many local acts of terrorism."

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Marx considered negroes to be a degenerate race.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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POLICE STATE USA?

Some Leftists are having orgasms over this story:

Secret Service visits art show "Organizers of a politically charged art exhibit at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery thought their show might draw controversy. But they didn't expect two U.S. Secret Service agents would be among the show's first visitors. The agents turned up Thursday evening, just before the public opening of 'Axis of Evil, the Secret History of Sin,' and took pictures of some of the art pieces -- including 'Patriot Act,' showing President Bush on a mock 37-cent stamp with a revolver pointed at his head. The agents asked what the artists meant by their work and wanted museum director CarolAnn Brown to turn over the names and phone numbers of all the artists. .."

"Police state"! They are crying. "Fascism!" "Censorship!"

It is of course nothing more than another example of zero tolerance -- the view that small threats and offences matter -- the strategy that drastically reduced crime in NYC and which is now applied nationwide in U.S. schools by Leftist teachers in their campaign against weapons of all sorts -- so that kids are sent home or expelled for possessing a butterknife or drawing a picture of a gun. So if zero tolerance is evidence of Fascism, America's Left-dominated schools are a hotbed of it. I somehow think that Leftists would not like to argue that. I personally think that zero tolerance is what it says -- intolerant -- and hence I dislike it, but what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

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GRRR.... I HATE THESE MSM DISTORTIONS: BANKRUPTCY

This is the AP "news" report just out:

"Tens of thousands of people who want to wipe out their debts in bankruptcy court would have to work out repayment plans instead under legislation Congress approved Thursday. A 302-126 vote by the House sent the legislation to President Bush, who said he was eager to sign the measure, the biggest rewrite of the bankruptcy code in a quarter-century. It marks the second major change in law to benefit business since Republicans increased their House and Senate majorities in last fall's elections... After eight years of strenuous efforts by congressional backers, banks and credit card companies, the legislation was catapulted toward enactment starting earlier this year. The legislation, which garnered some Democratic votes, cleared the Senate last month on a 74-25 vote. The measure would require people with incomes above a certain level to pay credit-card charges, medical bills and other obligations under a court-ordered bankruptcy plan."

These robotic Leftist journalists don't mention that businesses are doing very well without this legislation. They just pass on their bad debts to everybody else in the form of higher charges. It is CONSUMERS who will benefit by not having to pay other people's debts.

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ELSEWHERE

Wow! Steve Sailer seems to have totally shot down Steven Levitt's claim that legalized abortion was the cause of the drop in the crime rate

IQ tests revived in Britain (but not under that name, of course): "Teenagers face a nationwide examination to test their aptitude for university, in an attempt to identify the brightest students. The generic admissions test, to be piloted in September using 1,500 students across the country, adds to the burden of examinations that schoolchildren face and demonstrates a lack of confidence in A levels. Vice-chancellors have complained that the present admissions system, which relies on predicted grades, is no longer adequate. Half of predicted grades turn out to be wrong and many more A-level students are getting A grades than in the past. Designed and implemented by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and the Australian Council for Educational Research, the new test is intended to ease the problem of oversubscription and justify selection procedures".

Death tax on way out: "The House voted 272 to 162 yesterday to permanently repeal the estate tax, throwing the issue to the Senate where negotiations have begun on a deep and permanent estate tax cut that can pass this year, even if it falls short of full repeal." [Australia abolished it years ago]

Minutemen success: "There aren't many border-control success stories these days, but Arizona's Minuteman Project is quickly becoming one. ... How ironic that the people who President Bush derided as 'vigilantes' are acting as much-needed extra eyes and ears for law-enforcement officials. The Minutemen have all but sealed the U.S.-Mexico border in the 23-mile stretch they patrol. Their success suggests that, organized in larger scale with a cooperative federal government, groups like Project Minuteman could be a substantial contribution to border security. At the very least, the Minutemen are bringing some much-needed attention to the nation's woefully porous borders. We hope President Bush and others who prefer the status quo are watching."

Euro on the way out? "European Central Bank watchers have begun to speculate on the fate of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) should French voters reject the European constitution next month. "The euro at risk" was the headline of a Deutsche Bank report to its clients on Monday. "Its life expectancy may soon be regarded as finite," Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Munchau wrote the same day. Supporters of the constitution say it is vital for ensuring that the European Union functions properly after the bloc's expansion last year. But opinion polls show a clear majority of French voters plan to reject it in a referendum on May 29. The constitution needs backing from all 25 member states and some analysts say its failure could lead to a reversal of European political integration. "The EU could disintegrate toward a free-trade zone," said WestLB Financial Markets on Tuesday. "Such developments would spell disaster for EMU and the ECB.""

Reliapundit also has a roundup of news suggesting that the EU is in big trouble.

Nathan Tabor notes that the father of the unborn is the third victim of abortion.

My latest quote on MARXWORDS shows that Marx thought the Russians were mainly Asiatics and should be chased out of Russia. Hitler, of course, tried to do put that into practice.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"

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