INTERESTING REPORT FROM "THE PEOPLE'S CUBE" (A SITE SATIRIZING THE LEFT)

"This site, as well as the Mother Site (CFK) has been bombarded with righteous anti-American, Republican-bashing posts written in good English, without mentioning the posters' nationality. But site administrators have a way of checking IP addresses. Some of them came from the Netherlands, some from Germany, and all of them point to RIPE Network Coordination Centre in Amsterdam:

Good job, European activist comrades! The enemy is more tractable if he is confused about the source of the attack and thinks it may be coming from his next-door neighbor. We were forced to delete a few dozen of such posts as spam - they had no intrinsic value and added nothing to the site. As of late, however, angry spam has been replaced by "neutral" advertisements for the U.S. Democratic Party, which the DNC Chairperson, Howard Dean (a.k.a. Hao Tse-Dean), has initiated. But the IP addresses behind the posts are the same, ending up in Europe.

Why would the anti-American European Left support the American Democratic Party? Apparently for the same reason they support the anti-American Iraqi insurgency and Islamofascists. They don't? Oh yes they do! U.S. News & World Report writes about their latest campaign - "10 Euros per person for the Iraqi resistance." Observe European fundraising sites here and here. No need to mention the Left's propagandistic effort to give moral support to terrorists in the Middle East and around the globe, in which they thoroughly fill the gigantic shoes of the erstwhile KGB, picking up Stalin's methods and networks.

Why would they do that? To win, the Left needs to discredit and defeat the very idea of capitalism, individualism, and personal freedom. The simple litmus test here is this: would you like to own your government, or would you like your government to own you? This is the basic fault line and the starting point of all reasoning. America was the world's first nation to set up a system in which individuals owned their government - as opposed to the rest of the world were people remained slaves to their rulers. To exist, the American system requires capitalism, individualism, and personal freedom. These are the American values. The only significant force in today's world that still fights for them are American conservatives. The Left's ultimate model, on the contrary, implies that the individual is owned by the state. In such state humans become mere beasts of burden and are routinely sacrificed for the mythical "common good." This ideological divide makes the American conservatives the Left's worst enemies and best punching bags.

It's ironic that in order to make the world accept its "historically optimistic" vision, the Left needs to instill nihilism, fear, uncertainty, cynicism, and despair. In practical terms, that means to defeat the spreading of American values worldwide (by supporting Islamofascists) and at home (by supporting the U.S. Democratic Party represented by Howard Dean and Dick Durbin). And it looks like the desperate DNC leaders try their best to live up to such a high honor.

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Whoopee! The dreadful Sandra Day O'Connor is going from SCOTUS. Now the hijinks start. I predict Estrada will be GWB's nominee to replace her. GWB has already renominated "rejects" for the circuit courts.

Do you know what the ultimate symbol of Republican corruption is? Have a guess: Money? Power? Sex? Nope. You've got it all wrong. It's golf! Yes. Golf. Don't believe me? It's all explained here. Seems to me a pretty big compliment, actually. If a love of golf is all the Left can dredge up to criticize, then the GOP are doing very well indeed. I wonder what the ultimate symbol of Leftist corruption is? Multi-million dollar fortunes, perhaps? Think John Kerry, John Edwards, George Soros, Ted Kennedy, Ted Turner, etc etc.

There is a big comment thread here about that sad mini-Chomsky, Brian Leiter. Leiter admits that his blog is just a Leftist rant that makes no attempt at rational persuasion on political matters. I am actually quite amused by Leiter's far-Left dogmatism. It means he has despaired of persuading anybody. All he can do is preach to the choir. It is a confession of defeat. And it is no good saying that nobody can be persuaded. There are heaps of libertarians in the blogosphere who could (and do) go either way on Left/Right issues. But I am sure that Leiter is getting his rocks off over just the fact that people are discussing him -- no matter how derisive the comments might be (and generally are). [Links from Keith Burgess-Jackson]

A claim of good intentions can excuse anything: "Now will someone explain the moral difference between enthusiasm for Fidel Castro and enthusiasm for Augusto Pinochet? Both are appalling Latin American dictators. Both have bad human rights records. Both have had their misdeeds winked at, one way or another, by Uncle Sam. Tell me, O ye coolers and groovers, why is it OK to wear a badge with Fidel on it, but very much not OK to wear a badge showing Pinochet? How is it possible that in Lithuania there is now a Stalin theme park, complete with 13 giant effigies of Lenin (remember: he killed five million)? Why is it somehow post-modern and ironic and slick to commemorate these thugs, while any theme park in honour of the Nazis would be rightly denounced as mad and in the height of bad taste? Why is it so obvious to everyone that [Soviet spy Melita Norwood] should be left to a quiet old age in Bexleyheath - with not even a whiff of a prosecution - when we continue to chivvy out every last collaborator with the Nazis, now matter how decrepit, and herd them into the courts? Lefties are somehow assumed to be doing things for idealistic reasons, and for the collective good, and their high motives excuse their appalling solutions. That is why the servants of communist tyranny get sympathetic obits, and modern British girls wear CCCP T-shirts, and that is why a Labour Government can enact a series of authoritarian measures that a Conservative government could not contemplate. I cannot explain this injustice: I merely point it out".

The Irish triumph: "Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg. Yes, the country that for hundreds of years was best known for emigration, tragic poets, famines, civil wars and leprechauns today has a per capita GDP higher than that of Germany, France and Britain. How Ireland went from the sick man of Europe to the rich man in less than a generation is an amazing story.... In a quite unusual development, the government, the main unions, farmers and industrialists came together and agreed on a program of fiscal austerity, slashing corporate taxes to 12.5 per cent, far below the rest of Europe, moderating wages and prices and courting foreign investment. In 1996 Ireland made college education basically free, creating an even more educated workforce. The results have been phenomenal. Today, nine out of 10 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies have operations in the country, as do 16 of the top 20 medical device companies and seven out of the top 10 software designers. And overall tax receipts are way up. In 1990 Ireland's workforce was 1.1 million. This year it will hit 2 million, with no unemployment and 200,000 foreign workers (including 50,000 Chinese)."

Chris Brand has just done a new post on causes of wealth and poverty. See here.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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THINK ISRAEL

There is a BIG selection of essays up on Think Israel at the moment. Just a few of them:

U.S. SHOWING LACK OF UNDERSTANDING - OR HONESTY by Douglas J. Hagmann
ISLAM AND THE WEST: THE THREAT, THE DEFENSE Interview with Srdja Trifkovic by Al Kresta
JIHAD THROUGH HISTORY by Daniel Pipes
SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE ANTI-SEMITES! by Julia Gorin
KINGDOM'S RELIGIOUS WRONGS by Nina Shea
HAMAS AND THE REBIRTH OF ILLUSION by Jonathan Spyer
NAZI HAVENS ENDORSE KILLING JEWS by Beth Goodtree
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S CONQUEST OF EUROPE by Lorenzo Vidino
THE NEED TO HATE THE JEWS by Emanuel A. Winston
ON THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS: And its dependence on the future of Christianity by Barbara Lerner
WHAT IS ALL THIS INSURGENT/MILITANT STUFF? THEY ARE TERRORISTS! by Arlene Peck
WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE? by Yashiko Sagamori

I was amused by this quote from the site: "It has no heart. It has no spine. Its mouth serves as its anus. It has a diffuse net of nerves instead of a brain. Is it a jelly fish or an Israeli politician? Pick one. Whichever one you picked, you were right." -- Eliezar Edwards, June 20, 2005

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Socialist nonsense lives: "The House on Wednesday rejected a big proposed cut in Amtrak subsidies that would have led to major cutbacks in rail service. By voice vote during debate on a spending bill that covers Amtrak's budget, the House approved an amendment by Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, to add $626 million for Amtrak. That would bring Amtrak's budget to its current level of $1.2 billion."

More good economic news: "The US economy buried fears of an oil-related slowdown to grow by a robust 3.8 per cent in the first quarter, the US government said overnight. The Commerce Department's third and final release for gross domestic product (GDP) equalled the 3.8 per cent posted in the final quarter of 2004, and was up on the two previous estimates of 3.1 per cent and then 3.5 per cent.... "The economy is showing solid and sustained growth and job creation. The policies we have put in place are working and our economy is growing stronger," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said."

British Methodists scrap the Bible: "The Methodist church yesterday became the first big Christian denomination in Britain to offer the prospect of blessings services for same-sex couples. Although adamant that such services would not be regarded by the church as marriages, officials admitted that they could well be seen as such by the couples themselves and by the wider society. In stark contrast to the Anglican communion, which is tearing itself apart over its attitude towards homosexuality, the annual Methodist conference voted unanimously to continue its 'pilgrimage of faith' towards gay people."

Change coming in China? "Thousands of Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl, set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in an outburst likely to worry communist leaders in Beijing desperate to cling on to power.The official Xinhua news agency, in a rare report on a local disturbance, blamed Sunday's riot in Chizhou in dirt-poor eastern Anhui province on a few criminals who led the 'unwitting masses' astray. The violence was the latest in a series of protests which the Communist Party, in power since 1949, fears could spin out of control and become a channel for anger over corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor."

Banish Spanish!: "Like most Americans, I am sick and tired of being force-fed all things in Spanish, and being Hispanified and Latinized as part of my everyday experience. ... As a European-American who is fluent in Spanish (and English), thanks to our now rapidly disintegrating public school system, I say: Banish Spanish! The truth is, Spanish is a classist, elitist, sexist language reflecting a social structure that has no place in America. Spanish is as un-American as ... well, Montezuma. 'Non-Hispanic White' is the outrageous, insulting label that U.S. federales now use ... to define [me], a descendant of our nation's courageous, hardworking, liberty-loving Anglo-Saxon Protestant Founders. ... I and many self-respecting American will not tolerate being defined by the failures of the Spanish Armada and Conquistadors to conquer and dominate us. No thanks, we're Yanks. Comprende?"

Surprise! Cuba cannot house its people: "Cuba says it was facing a massive housing shortage and must build a half million homes over the next decade to deal with the crisis, according to a government report. The National Housing Institute said in a report released Monday at a conference that despite the need for about 50,000 new homes a year, only about 15,000 were built during 2004. Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon said at the opening of the U.N.-sponsored conference, which deals with sustainable development, that housing has become one of the communist government's most serious challenges. According to the report, some 43 percent of Cuban housing is in mediocre or poor shape. Population growth, tropical weather and poor maintenance contribute to the crisis."

New Victorian notes that "diversity" can now include a diversity of European backgrounds. Progress? I always thought "diverse" meant "black".

Good summary by Ollie North: ""Those on the far left are employing the same kind of rhetoric and tactics that worked during the Vietnam War -- where overheated rhetoric and the most vile slander are acceptable if they tarnish the president and hurt our war effort. They have no shame. They play politics like the Islamo-fascists conduct warfare -- dirty, ruthless and reckless, with no discernible rules, no regard for fact and no compunction about stabbing people in the back."

More Australian Leftist backbiting: "Senior Labor figure John Faulkner has attacked the "toxic" culture of his own party in NSW for lacking "civility, decency, honesty, humanity and even legality" as it struggles to find direction after the failed Mark Latham era. Launching a tell-all book on Mr Latham's leadership, Senator Faulkner said yesterday that bullying and thuggery in Labor's NSW faction system often became lazy substitutes for party debate"

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots of reading

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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SCRUSHY ACQUITTED!

Pretty amazing news: "A federal jury in Birmingham, Ala., stunned observers Tuesday when it acquitted Richard Scrushy, the former HealthSouth CEO, of all criminal charges stemming from a $2.7 billion accounting fraud at the company he founded. And so the executive whose imperial lifestyle and dictatorial workplace demeanor once earned him the nickname King Richard has been spared the life prison sentence that has threatened him since his ouster from HealthSouth and subsequent indictment two years ago".

This is fabulous news. Federal prosecutions like this are a travesty of justice -- with plea bargains being used as straight-out subornation of witnesses. Who wouldn't testify the way the government wanted with the alternative being a long prison sentence? Fortunately, the jury saw it that way too. This article from last February tells in detail how unjust is the Federal prosecution system that Scrushy had to beat. With the acquittal of Arthur Anderson and Scrushy and the recent defeat of Spitzer in New York, business might be heartened to fight the government standover men in future instead of giving hundreds of millions of shareholders' money to parasites who have done nothing to create those assets.

Brookes News Update

US productivity and investment: some truths and fallacies : Those who argued that all the US economy needed was the Net never thought about what it really takes just to supply it with cables and electricity let alone those little things called chips
The Society of St Vincent de Paul's Marxist claptrap and its attack on the free market: The Society of St Vincent de Paul recently released a study on inequality that was unadulterated Marxist claptrap
Technology, investment, risk and the state: Interventionists seem incapable of grasping the fact that savings fuel an economy and entrepreneurship drives it. Cripple both or only one of these factors and you cripple growth
China and its generals: The texts of Marx and Engels are the worst evils the West ever visited on an Asian country
The ownerships society: the animating principle of the 21st Century: The 20th Century's energizing dynamic was totalitarian socialism. Leading the parade were dictators like Stalin, Hitler and Chairman Mao

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I pointed out yesterday how economically illiterate are the fears of Chinese economic success. So I guess I should reply to the rumbles over the attempted Chinese purchase of an American oil company. There are two excellent articles for putting that scare to rest here and here but I particularly like this one.

Interesting quote from Hobsbawm -- Britain's famous Communist historian -- about prewar Germany: "If I'd been German and not a Jew, I could see I might have become a Nazi, a German nationalist. I could see how they'd become passionate about saving the nation. It was a time when you didn't believe there was a future unless the world was fundamentally transformed." That is of course a implicit acknowledgment of how close psychologically Nazism and Communism were. Hobsbawm also says that he saw the basis of his Communism as a sense of "mass ecstasy"; "pity for the exploited"; the "aesthetic appeal of a perfect and comprehensive intellectual system - dialectical materialism"; a "Blakean vision of the new Jerusalem"; and "intellectual anti-philistinism". So again we see that the main appeal of Communism was the psychological satisfactions it gave him. Whether it was right or benevolent was incidental.

Jeff Jacoby has a good comment on the constant Leftist claims that Bush and the GOP are "like Hitler": "But all they really accomplish is a kind of Holocaust-denial. After all, if congressional Republicans are ‘‘worse than Hitler,’’ then Hitler must have been no worse than congressional Republicans. Which means that the tyrant who drenched Europe in blood, created a hellish network of concentration camps, and sent more than a million Jewish children to their deaths is roughly equal to — maybe even better than — a political party that calls for tax cuts and welfare reform. Anyone who can say (or imply) such a thing is guilty of trivializing the Nazis’ crimes and of cheapening the agony of their victims".

The un-American death tax, the bell tolls for thee: "'The Congress needs to make sure that the Death Tax is gone forever ...' So declared President Bush last week, effectively launching one of the most important debates that will come before the nation this year. Indeed, upcoming deliberations in the Senate over permanently repealing the Death Tax will explore one of the fundamental questions of our time: Do Americans work for the U.S. Government or does the U.S. Government work for us? Do we own the fruits of our labor or are they just on loan from Uncle Sam while we are alive?" [All such taxes were abolished in Australia years ago so why not emigrate when you retire?]

Death tax diagnosis: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's designation of Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY] to be his chief negotiator on the Death Tax issue is extraordinarily revealing. The Democrats are scared to death of the issue which provided the margin of defeat for Tom Daschle and has become a powerful issue in other states, as well. The marching orders to Schumer, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chief, are to defuse the issue before it takes down other small red-state Democrats up for re-election in 2006. Apparently Reid and company have been reviewing the polls that portend disasters in certain states for votes to keep the death tax. Recently, Frank Luntz polled in Maine, North and South Dakota, Indiana, Colorado and Arkansas and found 85 percent support for killing the death tax outright or significantly reducing it."

Individual rights a Christian idea: "The modern roots of our individual rights and freedoms in the Western world are found in Christianity. The recognition by law of the intrinsic value of each human being did not exist in ancient times. Among the Romans, law protected social institutions such as the patriarchal family, but it did not safeguard the basic rights of the individual, such as personal security, freedom of conscience, of speech, of assembly, of association, and so forth. For them, the individual was of value "only if he was a part of the political fabric and able to contribute to its uses as though it were the end of his being to aggrandise the state". According to Benjamin Constant, a great French political philosopher, it is wrong to believe that people enjoyed individual rights prior to Christianity. In fact, as Fustel de Coulanges put it, the ancients had not even the idea of what such rights meant".

Stupidity rules! For now: "Bursting into tears, eighth-grader Anurag Kashyap of California became the U.S. spelling champ Thursday. Tied for second place were 11-year-old Samir Patel, who is home-schooled in Colleyville, Texas, and Aliya Deri, 13, a Pleasanton, California, student." Indian kids have won first place in five of the last seven years". Might be there's a pattern here? Nah. A friend in California has an Asian wife (which both he and I recommend), and so is among the few whites plugged into the state's Asian community. He reports that the Asians are contemptuous of whites. ("Lazy, not very smart.") The evidence supports them. They also believe that the chief aim of schooling in America is to coddle blacks and Latinos, which baffles them. Me too, but it isn't my problem: "Top twelve students on the USA Math Olympiad 2003: Boris Alexeev, Jae Bae, Daniel Kane, Anders Kaseorg (home-schooled), Mark Lipson, Tiankai Liu, Po-Ru Loh, Po-Ling Loh, Aaron Pixton, Kwokfung Tang, Tony Zhang, Yan Zhang." Take out Asians and Jews out of measures of high intellectual performance in America, and you aren't left with much. The foregoing doesn't look much different from staffing lists I have encountered for such things as research teams at Bell Labs. A friend, writing a book on Harvard, calculates that Asians and Jews make up about forty-five percent of the school. The Asians know this, of course. They figure the future is theirs. So do I".

I have just put up a new post on my Scripture blog -- saying why I like the book of Ecclesiastes so much -- for rather the wrong reasons from a Christian viewpoint.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

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 ECONOMICS: CHINA

The latest red herring that the Dems are trying to drag across the consciousness of the American people is fear of China. Take the trade deficit: What it means is that China sends lots of goodies (industrial products) to America and for most of that all they get in return is bits of paper (U.S. dollars). THAT should worry Americans? It seems like a sweet racket that Americans should be rejoicing about to me!

And because the panic is so silly, the Dems have to get really shrill in an attempt to disguise their silliness. As economic journalist Martin Hutchinson comments: "The late unlamented Senator Reed Smoot (R.-UT) was spiritually in full flow at the New America Foundation's Forum on America's Economic Future Wednesday, as Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, ex-Senator Tom Daschle (D.-SD) and Senators Richard Durbin (D.-IL) and Byron Dorgan (D.-ND) competed as to who could say the nastiest things about China. Presumably trade policy is not covered by the "hate speech" laws these gentlemen favor, but any luckless Chinese exporter present must have felt like an African American from the old South who'd wandered into a Ku Klux Klan convention".

And Kristof of the NYT is at it too. He is getting hysterical about America's foreign debt. He is particularly concerned that the Chinese have been buying lots of U.S. bonds as a way of putting their trade surplus into a piggy bank. He says: "The biggest risk we Americans face to our way of life and our place in the world probably doesn't come from Al Qaeda or the Iraq war. Rather, the biggest risk may come from this administration's fiscal recklessness and the way this is putting us in hock to China.... Another issue is that three-fourths of our new debt is now being purchased by foreigners, with China the biggest buyer of all. That gives China leverage over us, and it undermines our national security"

It undermines American national security that China has lots of pretty bits of paper issued by the U.S. government? I'd like to know how! It's the other way around if anything. If real problems with China did develop, the U.S. government could cancel all those bits of paper and thus give China nothing in return for them. So the fact that China is putting its savings into U.S. paper SHOWS that China has no intention of permitting any serious future conflict between itself and the USA! It's the best peace treaty with China that the USA could have.

The above explanation is of course a bit simplified but it gives the essence of the story.

(I have also put this post up on Blogger News)

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I don't know if this study by Darius Maestipieri, a primate expert at the University of Chicago, is really worth commenting on. It purports to show that child abusers get that way not by genetic inheritance (e.g. by being born stupid, uncontrolled or aggressive) but by being abused themselves as children. The research concerned, however, was based on a small group of Macaque monkeys and I cannot see how the results can be statistically significant, let alone meaningful in any other way. And this finding would seem to contradict their conclusion anyway: "almost half of those raised by abusive mothers did not become abusers themselves." That seems to indicate genes at work to me. And I won't ask questions about measures taken to preclude observer bias. No good beating a dead horse.

Oh Boy! I have always thought that Leftists are humour-deprived. Now I have proof. The London chief of Fox news said this recently: "Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly." And the Left are all taking it seriously! See e.g. here. What a sad lot the Left are! That he was just mocking their accusations of bias seems not to have occurred to them.

What a moron! The Bundeskanzler has obviously not noted that Ronald Reagan initiated America's long boom by CUTTING the top rate of income tax. "Germany's embattled chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, yesterday unveiled his latest plan to win back disaffected voters by announcing an extra 3% tax on the rich. In the first of a series of manifesto commitments before September's election, Mr Schröder said that he would impose the tax on anyone earning 250,000 euros a year - or 500,000 if they were married. Germany's top rate of tax would go up from 42% to 45%, Mr Schröder said, adding that the extra revenue raised would be spent on research and development.

What fun! If you ever doubted that Leftists hate one another at least as much as they hate conservatives, you should read this or this -- where the previous leader of the Australian Labor party absolutely savages both the present leader and the party as a whole. Even I think he goes too far. I see the present leader as a decent man, if a bit dull. He is, for instance, a committed Christian and an opponent of abortion. The Australian Labor party is a lot more moderate than the U.S. Democrats.

Even in Sweden conservatives are happiest: One in four Swedes professes to be "very happy", according to a new survey. The happiest people in Sweden have high incomes, are in good health, and pray to God. The survey, carried out by researchers at Gothenburg University, showed that people who voted for the Christian Democrat or Moderate parties were more likely to think of themselves as happy. This despite seventy years of almost unbroken Social Democratic rule in Sweden. Happy people were also most likely to be young and be living with a partner or be married. Sixty-two percent of rich, healthy people said they were happy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, being poor and unhealthy is not so much fun. Only 7 percent of people in this category said they were happy. The researchers from the Society Opinion and Media (SOM) Institute at Gothenburg University, spoke to 3,000 randomly chosen people between the ages of 15 and 85.

Court: No Ten Commandments in Courthouses: "In a narrowly drawn ruling, the Supreme Court struck down Ten Commandments displays in courthouses Monday, holding that two exhibits in Kentucky crossed the line between separation of church and state because they promoted a religious message..... In his dissent, Scalia blasted the majority for ignoring the rule of law to push their own personal policy preferences. "What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle," Scalia wrote.... The cases marked the first time since 1980 the high court tackled the emotional issue, in a courtroom boasting a wall carving of Moses holding the sacred tablets.... Ten Commandments displays are supported by a majority of Americans, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. The poll taken in late February found that 76 percent support it and 23 percent oppose it."

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

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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TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I list what I think were the best posts on my various blogs in the preceding week.

On Dissecting Leftism I look at the links between abortion, crime and race

On Political Correctness Watch I report on anti-Americanism in Australia

On Greenie Watch I note that the Vice president of the IPCC (U.N. body) has dismissed human-caused global warming

On Education Watch I note statistics showing that college is a bad investment: Spending taxpayer money on education REDUCES the income of the population

On Socialized Medicine I note that Australia shows how corrupt and money-mad a GOVERNMENT health system can be

On Leftists as Elitists I have an explanation of why British intellectuals still love Karl marx

On Majority Rights I report on tolerance and respect for the individual in Tudor England.

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A good post: "First, we understand that Leftism is Hate. It is aggression. It is the desire to devour valuable institutions under color of social justice, and to understand that one of the devouring methods is to erase our History. The Hate in America is not coming from racism, it is coming from those who won’t let racism die a natural death of old age. The Hate in America is not coming from inequality, but from coerced compliance with plans that will never work, and become resentful to everyone. The Hate in America is not coming from violent crime but from a refusal to allow the righteous resistance to it... The Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democrats at its peak. At the pinnacle of its raw terrorist power of mob psychology, hangings, shootings, beating and code of silence, the KKK was filled with Democrats, not right wingos, so that whatever some may say today in defense of former Klansmen, it was a Democrat movement for decades and never a Republican movement".

Muslims Have Desecrated Bibles and Churches. So what is all the mob angst over the Koran?: "The images of Muslims rampaging over rumors and unproven allegations of "Koran abuse" are troubling - but not because of the behavior of the mobs. What else should we expect from fanatics whose religion justifies a toxic combination of arrogant superiority, spiritual entitlement, and corrosive resentment over history's repudiation of their inflated estimation of their world-historical role? Their minds addled by this brew, they find it perfectly reasonable to believe gratifying fantasies in which 9/11 was the handiwork of Zionist agents, the United States has spent lives and treasure liberating Iraqi Muslims in a scheme to acquire oil, and Jews are the masterminds of a sinister plot to oppress Allah's darlings. No, what should trouble us is our own response. For the past week high-ranking officials of the United States government have been falling all over themselves assuring the rioters that we really, really do respect their "holy Koran" and would never, never sanction such disrespect. We like their religion, we really do; we respect and honor it and its marvelous contributions to civilization. And what have we received in exchange for all these protestations of respect and esteem? More riots and more contempt"

Government programs cause unemployment: "Martin Feldstein of Harvard University explains how social insurance programs undermine economic growth by subsidizing unemployment. The left instinctively defends these programs, but they often redistribute away from the poor and hurt the people they were created to help.... Noneconomists who write about social insurance programs often implicitly assume that social insurance programs do not affect the behavior of beneficiaries or the overall performance of the economy. Evidence shows that the opposite is true. Social insurance programs have important and sometimes harmful effects on the economy that are not fully recognized by the public, the Congress, or the politically responsible officials. A substantial volume of work during the past quarter century has shown the various ways in which social insurance programs do affect individual behavior and the overall economy. These effects include reducing national saving, inducing early retirement, raising the unemployment rate, pushing up the cost of health care, and crowding out private health insurance. ...

Aid wasted on Africa: "Africa's leaders cannot wait for the G8 leaders - hectored by Bob and Live 8 into bracelet-wearing submission - to double aid and forgive the continent's debts. They know that such acts of generosity will finance their future purchases of very swish, customised Mercedes-Benz cars, while 315 million poor Africans stay without shoes and Western taxpayers get by with Hondas. This is the way it goes with the WaBenzi, a Swahili term for the Big Men of Africa. The legacy of colonialism is a continent carved up by arbitrary frontiers into 50-odd states. But the WaBenzi are a transcontinental tribe who have been committing grand theft auto on the dusty, potholed roads of Africa ever since they hijacked freedom in the 1960s. After joyriding their way through six Marshall Plans' worth of aid Africa is poorer today than 25 years ago; and now the WaBenzi want more".

Abortion harms women: "Instead of arguing along traditional "pro-life" arguments that reference the fetus as a human being, an argument that Bachiochi claims "intellectually honest" pro-choice advocates have already conceded, Bachiochi disputed traditional "pro-choice" arguments, namely that abortion does not advance the rights of women. "[I want to] challenge the sacred dogma of mainstream feminism that abortion is an untrammeled good for women, that it is necessary to women's equality and women's well-being," asserted Bachiochi. "Many good-willed people have bought this idea - hook, line and sinker - but medical evidence, sociological data and the lived experience of many women has revealed a very different reality: abortion has harmed women, physically, psychologically, relationally and culturally."

Chris Brand has put up a lot of interesting posts lately. I have transferred them here for convenience. Chris has started to branch out to Blogger News as well.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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THE LEFT IS NOW REACTIONARY

"If you look hard at what unites the left across Europe and the US, it is decidedly reactionary. In continental Europe, emboldened by the French vote, the Left proudly proclaims a bold objective: Back to the Future. The French Left, and its allies in the rest of Europe, stands not for some progressive dream of international solidarity for the dispossessed, but four-square behind the protection of the continent's own illusory privileges. The Left's new rallying cry is to build a protective system that would impoverish Bulgarians, Romanians, Turks, Indians and Chinese and would, of course, as do all attempts to retreat from the realities of the global market, ill serve its own workers. And it is not just the European Left. In America, too, anti-globalisation is the turf that many Democrats are eager to defend. As Governor Schwarzenegger has discovered - and as Europeans have long known - the Left is also reactionary in defending the interests of public-sector trade unions against genuine reform and progress.

Besides anti-globalisation, the other main current in the current stream of leftish theory and practice is visceral anti-Americanism, again on both aides of the Atlantic. Nothing new there, of course. Except that what really rouses the animus today is not America's supposed global mission to exploit the downtrodden worker, but its ambitious objective of spreading democracy. In the Middle East the left finds it much easier to side with the mullahs and the jihadists, the persecutors of women and the torturers of dissidents. America's flaws at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are viewed by the Left's political and intellectual leaders as morally indistinguishable from (or perhaps worse than) anything the Islamists and Arab despots have got up to.

To be fair, not all on the Left have taken their stand on the side of reaction. But the trends in political debate in the West are strikingly clear. We are well on the way to an inversion of the classic Left-Right divide. These days if you're in favour of policies designed to promote global economic integration, policies that have led hundreds of millions in Asia, Latin America, and Africa out of the misery of grinding poverty, and have significantly lifted the standard of living of workers in the West too; if you support change to topple tyrannical regimes and give some hope to people who have suffered in fledgling democracies, you're now more likely to be considered a conservative. What, exactly, is Left?"

Excerpt from The Times

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A Party Without Ideas: "What has happened to the Democrats over the past few decades is best captured by the phrase (coined by Kevin Phillips) "reactionary liberalism." Spent of new ideas, they have but one remaining idea: to hang on to the status quo at all costs. This is true across the board. On Social Security, which is facing an impending demographic and fiscal crisis, they have put absolutely nothing on the table. On presidential appointments -- first, judges and now ambassador to the United Nations -- they resort to the classic weapon of southern obstructionism: the filibuster. And on foreign policy, they have nothing to say on the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq or the burgeoning Arab Spring (except the refrain: "Guantanamo")... Take trade and Central America. The status quo there is widespread poverty. The Bush administration has proposed doing something about it -- a free-trade agreement encompassing five Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic.... You would think, therefore, that Democrats would be for CAFTA. Not so. CAFTA is in great jeopardy because Democrats have turned against it".

Greenspan warns against China tariffs "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress on Thursday not to rush to impose punitive tariffs on imports from China, saying they would harm U.S. consumers and protect 'few if any American jobs.' It marked Greenspan's most blunt assessment to date that currency-related legislation that has attracted support from two-thirds of the Senate would harm the U.S. economy by driving up prices for the Chinese products Americans crave."

Geldof lies too: "one comment recently made by Geldof stands out more than any other. On Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC 1 on 10 June, he told a hushed studio audience, and millions of viewers, about an island off Italy where 'thousands' of dead Africans - men, women and children fleeing poverty in makeshift boats - have washed up on the beaches.... But how accurate was Geldof's description? Not accurate at all, according to the mayor of Lampedusa. A spokesman for the mayor describes as 'absolute nonsense' the claim that Lampedusa is so packed with dead immigrants that it has no room left to bury anymore. 'There are 15 immigrants buried in the Christian graveyard in Lampedusa', he says. He also denies that dead bodies wash up on the shores of Lampedusa 'daily'."

PETA hypocrites: "While PETA lectures Americans about the "evils" of eating meat, wearing wool, taking children to the circus, and using lab rats to help cure cancer, the group puts to death most of the actual flesh-and-blood animals entrusted to it by the public.... As we're finding out from the North Carolina case, PETA picks up dogs, cats, puppies and kittens from shelters and veterinarians, often with assurances that new homes will be found for them. But in 2003 PETA killed over 85 percent of the animals it took in... If anyone else were responsible for these animals' deaths, PETA would hold a press conference to condemn them.... PETA has acknowledged killing over 10,000 animals between 1998 and 2003; recent reporting suggests PETA added 2,200 more to its body count in 2004. All while presiding over a gargantuan fundraising operation that brought in nearly $29 million last year. With that kind of money, PETA could afford to care for every single one of the animals it picks up -- if it weren't so hell-bent on spending millions turning children into vegetarians, demonizing people who don't have an all-polyester wardrobe, and misleading Americans about the medical breakthroughs that have only come about through the use of research animals... It's time for Americans who want to help animals to stop sending money to PETA, and start supporting their local animal shelters instead" See also Nathan Tabor on the same subject.

Mark Steyn has a hard-hitting article about the disgraceful aftermath to the tsunami disaster and what it shows about the hopelessness of international organizations. One excerpt: "The tsunami may have been unprecedented, but what followed was business as usual — the sloth and corruption of government, the feebleness of the brand-name NGOs, the compassion-exhibitionism of the transnational jet set. If we lived in a world where ‘it’s what you do that defines you’, we’d be heaping praise on the US and Australian militaries who in the immediate hours after the tsunami struck dispatched their forces to save lives, distribute food, restore water and power and communications".

Foreign aid bad for freedom: "Our regressions give some indication that aid decreases economic freedom... Our findings clearly can cast serious doubt on the proposition that aid increases freedom in poor countries. Given the World Bank's mission of promoting economic growth in poor countries and the strong empirical literature on the importance of economic freedom for growth, our paper indicates that since aid cannot be shown to have a positive influence on freedom, aid is unlikely to lead to development in poor countries."

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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ABORTION AND CRIME: ANOTHER INVISIBLE ELEPHANT IN THE BEDROOM

Warning: Very incorrect post coming up. It's all truth and logic, though

Steven Levitt's well-known finding that legalized abortion reduced crime in the USA is well summarized here. The summary does not mention Steve Sailer's challenge but that may be because Levitt himself has answered that challenge quite convincingly. The interesting part of the article comes at the very end however:

"I asked Don Weatherburn, director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, about Levitt's hypothesis. He says it's plausible, but there are other plausible hypotheses too. (Some can be found in the book The Crime Drop in America, edited by Alfred Blumstein and Joel Wallman.)

So what about Australia, which Levitt suggests has had a similar experience to America? Abortion was legalised here at about the same time as in the US, but Weatherburn says that most crime increased in Australia during the 1990s. He wonders if Australia's more generous welfare provisions meant that legalised abortion had a different impact here. Whatever the reason, our criminal class has remained free of the (unintended) eugenics Levitt says occurred in the US"

The unmentioned elephant is that Australia has very few negroes. And in America it is negroes who are both heavy users of abortion and a hugely disproportionate source of crime. So what the Australian result shows is that the effect is a negro effect, not an underclass or poverty effect generally. I guess I can understand that nobody wanted to confront that obvious inference but it does show that crime-reduction cannot be used as a GENERAL justification for abortion. It only works with negroes.

NOTE: Even though I am Australian blogging from Australia and the High Court of Australia has recently ruled that even the word "nigger" is not offensive in Australia, I do realize that the word "negro" is pretty unmentionable in polite American circles today. If I had however said that Australia has few people of African origin here I would be lying. We have a lot of them -- white refugees from Zimbabwe, South Africa and East Africa.

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My best wishes to a great pastor: "The Rev. Billy Graham, hobbled by age and illness, opened his final American revival Friday, greeted with a standing ovation as he used a walker to reach the pulpit. Graham, 86, was supported while he moved onstage by his son and successor, the Rev. Franklin Graham, who then sat nearby, ready to step in if his father was unable to finish".

More Leftist hate: "American students are quitting Queensland universities in the face of hate attacks by Australians angry at US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. One university has launched an investigation into claims an American student returned to the US after suffering six months of abuse at a residential college in Brisbane. American students have told The Sunday Mail the verbal attacks are unbearable and threatening to escalate into physical violence. Griffith University student Ian Wanner, 19, from Oregon, said abusive Australian students had repeatedly called him a "sepo" – short for septic tank. "It is so disrespectful. It's not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere here," he said. The Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission has described the abuse as "horrible" and says it could be classed as racial vilification".

The sick British welfare system: "The second revelation, by the economist Professor Bob Rowthorn, was the absolutely staggering size of the financial incentive for parents to separate. A couple on average earnings are taxed to the tune of 7,600 pounds per year; but if the same couple live apart, they receive 400 pounds in benefits. That's an astounding 8,000 pound incentive for parents to split up - and yet the disintegration of the family, with the number of lone parents tripling over the past thirty years, is the single most important factor behind our culture of incivility, disorder and crime"

In case you have not seen the excellent Karl Rove speech that has sent the Democrats into a fit, the relevant bits are here. Truth hurts. Reliapundit has proof that Rove was right.

Muslim hate-preaching in Australia: "Books sold at the store attached to the Brunswick mosque tell Muslims they should "hate and take as enemies" non-Muslims, reject Jews and Christians, and learn to hate in order to properly love Allah. The texts say Muslims should learn military tactics and suggest that if a person speaks ill of Islam it is acceptable to kill them. They urge Muslims to strike back against "the barbaric onslaught from their enemies -- the Jews, Christians, atheists, secularists and others". Pages are devoted to legitimising episodes of violence against Jews who insult Islam. "A Jewish woman used to abuse the Prophet and disparage him. A man strangled her till she died. The Apostle of Allah declared that no recompense was payable for her blood," one book recounts. A similar example is given of a man killing the mother of his two children because she "disparaged the Prophet"; he also was declared clear of any crime". As LGF says: "In the same Australian state where two Christians have been convicted of “religious vilification” thoughtcrimes for criticizing Islam, the so-called “mainstream” Brunswick Mosque is preaching Islamic supremacism and Dark Ages hatred of infidels and Jews"

James Z.Smith has an excellent comment on vegetarianism. I think he has got the vegetarians nailed on consistency grounds. But like Leftism, I suspect vegetarianism is not so much logical as a claim to virtue. I wonder if there are many Christian vegetarians? Genesis 1: 29,30 seems to indicate that vegetarianism was what the creator intended. Having "dominion" over the animals is a long way from eating them.

There is an excellent site here that has pictures from Iraq that you are most unlikely to see in the mainstream media.

I have just put up here some outspoken comments about the present situation in Zimbabwe extracted from Michael Darby's most recent report. Michael has had the honour a couple of years ago of being kicked out of Zimbabwe but he still has very good contacts there.

There is a sad and disgraceful story on SOCIALIZED MEDICINE today.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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 MORE ECONOMICS

Debt relief is largely bank relief: "Make no mistake. This not a bailout of Africa's poor or Latin American peasants. This is a bailout of the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. They will get the money to replace their lost loans. As in a Monopoly game where the rules are thrown out, they will be handed new money to play with. Bush and Blair are bailing out failed global institutions run by the highest-paid bureaucrats on earth."

The 250th anniversary of the discovery of economics: "There are those who have claimed Ludwig von Mises to be the greatest economist of the 20th century, particularly the first half of the century. Others have claimed that Murray Rothbard is the greatest economist or social scientist of the second half of the 20th century. I agree with both of these claims. These men were great in many different respects. However, the title of the best economist in history, I would give to Richard Cantillon.... But first, who was Richard Cantillon? Cantillon was a man of mystery. His biographer Antoin Murphy can only date his birth sometime between 1680 and 1690. He was born into an Irish Catholic family that had been dispossessed of its lands by Cromwell's forces. Ironically, his first job was as a clerk for the British Paymaster General during the War of Spanish Succession (1701-13).... Rothbard loves Cantillon stating that he "was the first theorist to demarcate an independent area of investigation -- economics -- and to write a general treatise on all its aspects."

Poverty that defies aid : "Tony Blair arrived recently in Washington to ask President George Bush to increase substantially U.S. aid to Africa. His visit came a few months after Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs unveiled his own plan to end extreme poverty around the world by 2025. 'In The End of Poverty,' Mr. Sachs argues rich countries should commit themselves to transferring some $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the poorest nations -- primarily in Africa. But, in truth, foreign aid is unlikely to succeed, because most of Africa's problems are internal."

This could be a description of government buses almost anywhere: "Metrobus, which carries 500,000 passengers a day across the region, is a dilapidated system that suffers from weak supervision, old equipment and buses that travel in bunches, wrecking schedules and service, a panel of bus experts told Metro directors yesterday.... Some mechanical breakdowns could be avoided if drivers properly inspected the buses before they begin their routes, as required by federal law, Scanlon said. "It will help you before you get a piece of equipment out on the road that then becomes a road call," he told Metro officials. "Your own audits and our observations show your operators are not doing it." Metro managers said they have begun to require operators to perform the inspections and about 70 percent are complying. The panel also found that bus service could run more smoothly with better supervision. Metrobus routes are plagued by "bunching," in which several buses on a route travel in a pack, Scanlon said. Bunching often occurs if traffic or some other problem causes the first bus to slow down and the following buses to catch up"

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There is a new article out in the American Political Science Review by John R. Alford, Carolyn L. Funk, and John R. Hibbing under the heading "Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?". The article is not online but there is a summary of it in the NYT. Excerpt: "As found in previous studies, attitudes about issues like school prayer, property taxes and the draft were among the most influenced by inheritance, the researchers found. Others like modern art and divorce were less so. And in the twins' overall score, derived from 28 questions, genes accounted for 53 percent of the differences.... Although the two broad genetic types, more conservative and more progressive, may find some common ground on specific issues, they represent fundamental differences that go deeper than many people assume, the new research suggests." The finding is of course old hat among geneticists. I have summarized some of the previous evidence here

Amazing: "By yesterday morning, Mr Blair had become the toast of Europe. The British may have become cynical about his Honest Tony oratory and big-tent politics, but on the unsuspecting mainland, they still worked their magic. Just as Mr Blair is most enfeebled at home, across the EU he is being hailed as the natural leader of the continent: the only man who can save Europe from itself.... Most worryingly for President Chirac and Herr Schröder is that their own countries’ newspapers fell under Mr Blair’s spell".

That those great seekers of acclaim -- Leftists -- should have infiltrated and taken over organizations with real claims to righteousness -- such as Amnesty and many of the churches -- should be no surprise. But by their inherent lack of concern for truth and balance, the Leftists concerned soon destroy the credibility of what they have taken over. The one-eyed condemnation of Israel by the United Methodist Church that I mentioned yesterday and the equating of Gitmo with the Soviet Gulag by the most senior representatives of Amnesty are recent examples. If anybody needs a refresher course in just how divorced from reality the Gitmo=Gulag accusation is, see here

Another loon: "Yes, my friends, it is now obvious to me how Adolph Hitler seized power in Germany, because the same principles that Hitler used in the 1930's are being used by America's leaders today."

GWB the inspirer: "A reader living in Moscow," writes National Review's Jay Nordlinger, "sent me a photo from a rally in Azerbaijan, which showed a youth holding up a poster of President Bush with the words, 'We Want Freedom.' The reader commented, 'It's good to remember whom people turn to when they're desperate -- and it ain't Kofi Annan."' Indeed. It is fashionable in some circles to invoke the United Nations as the touchstone of moral authority, but realists know better. They look to the United States, not the UN, as the great moral engine in world affairs. Like the Lebanese who waved a US flag during the demonstrations in Beirut earlier this year, like the "Goddess of Liberty" in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the young Azerbaijani with his poster is a reminder that America and its message of freedom and individual dignity have an almost limitless capacity to inspire those who are denied them".

Good to see that Taranto is having a go at the puffed-up and hysterical Andrew Sullivan. Lots of little-known bloggers such as myself have long pointed to Sullivan's dubious standards (my earliest comment on him was here) but Sullivan routinely ignores such challenges. He could not ignore someone as widely read as Taranto, however.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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LEFTIST EGOTISM

I recently pointed out that Leftist anti-Americanism makes most sense if it is understood as mainly serving a feelgood purpose for the Leftist. A reader has reminded me of an August 2002 article by Lee Harris which makes a similar point about the Vietnam activism of the 60's. I remember noting the article at the time it came out but it is well worth revisiting. A short excerpt:

"My first encounter with this particular kind of fantasy occurred when I was in college in the late sixties. A friend of mine and I got into a heated argument. Although we were both opposed to the Vietnam War, we discovered that we differed considerably on what counted as permissible forms of anti-war protest. To me the point of such protest was simple - to turn people against the war. Hence anything that was counterproductive to this purpose was politically irresponsible and should be severely censured. My friend thought otherwise; in fact, he was planning to join what by all accounts was to be a massively disruptive demonstration in Washington, and which in fact became one.

My friend did not disagree with me as to the likely counterproductive effects of such a demonstration. Instead, he argued that this simply did not matter. His answer was that even if it was counterproductive, even if it turned people against war protesters, indeed even if it made them more likely to support the continuation of the war, he would still participate in the demonstration and he would do so for one simple reason - because it was, in his words, good for his soul.

What I saw as a political act was not, for my friend, any such thing. It was not aimed at altering the minds of other people or persuading them to act differently. Its whole point was what it did for him.

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Methodist disgrace: "While the United Methodist Church has been quick to condemn Israel for alleged human-rights abuses, the denomination's General Conference has refused to consider resolutions on human-rights violations in China, North Korea, Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, and Egypt. The religious Left is so concerned about Israeli human-rights violations, real or perceived, but has nothing to say about Arab human-rights violations -- even when those violations include persecution of Christian minorities"

Yippee!: "The Anglican Church moved closer to schism yesterday when members of its central administrative council formally asked the Churches of Canada and the US to go. Unconvinced by the justifications offered by both Churches on Tuesday for their actions in ordaining an openly homosexual bishop and authorising same-sex blessings, members of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Nottingham asked them to leave the council and its central finance and standing committees."

Pretty good stuff from Mr Brown: "Gordon Brown called on the European Union last night to end its integrationist ambitions and make the radical economic reforms needed to turn it from a trade bloc into a force able to compete in the world. The Chancellor urged a "pro-European realism" whereby the Union rose to international challenges while accepting that identities remained rooted in the nation-state. Mr Brown outlined in his annual Mansion House speech how he and the Prime Minister would make economic reform the centrepiece of Britain's six-month presidency of the EU. Mr Brown went on the offensive over the European budget and called for sheltered markets to be opened up, "starting with agriculture". Tony Blair will repeat that message when he addresses the European Parliament today, seeking to dispel the "caricature" advanced at the recent EU summit of Britain being a Dickensian economy.""

Dems blame the messenger: "What's infuriating is that whenever a Democrat luminary goes before the cameras to initiate damage control he ends up sounding hopelessly immature. [Democrat Chairman Howard] Dean blamed the controversy over his uncouth remarks on the Republicans, because its 'exactly what [they] want.' Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, responding to Mr. Durbin's unfortunate analogy, said, 'The noise machine from the far right never stops. ... This is all a distraction by the White House.' For his part, Mr. Durbin has also blamed the 'right-wing media.' So, the Republicans and the White House are supposedly to blame for what Democrats say. No doubt it's all part of some insidious Karl Rove plot. As for the 'right-wing media,' Democrats apparently think it's incredibly unfair that reporters actually report what a politician has said. Here's some free advice to Democrats: Stop saying stupid things."

Hateful Leftist abuse of the 9/11 atrocity: "Less than four years after America was sucker-punched by terrorists, we are again under a vicious attack. Only this time, those who would destroy our way of life are working from within. Here, at the spot known as Ground Zero - where Michael Diehl was killed, along with nearly 2,800 human beings - planners are busy developing an "International Freedom Center." ... Planners entrusted with developing the Ground Zero memorial have determined that this city needs some sort of "cultural" - their word - component to the site. The idea is to build an educational center - more like an indoctrination center, it seems to me - with exhibits examining unrelated outrages of the past, many of them committed by Americans. Slavery and the treatment of American Indians, just to name two.... It seems the advisory committee for the Freedom Center is peppered with folks who brandish leftist political agendas. These include a Columbia professor who said, three weeks after 9/11, that he didn't know what was scarier - the terror attacks or the White House's response to them."

George Neumayr on Democrat non-standards: "If Terri Schiavo had been dehydrated to death at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Dick Durbin would be reading her autopsy report from the Senate floor. ... Instead, Democrats -- even as they spent part of the week crassly celebrating, with news of Schiavo's autopsy report in hand, the human rights abuse of euthanasia against the disabled -- are in a moral lather over the paucity of air conditioning terrorists receive at Guantanamo Bay."

Ovi Magazine issue 5 is online from Finland. "The team has worked hard to produce nearly forty articles on a wide range of subjects, including graduation, disability, Michael Jackson, the E.U., handshakes, homemade cards, backgammon and so much more".

Libertarian Eddie thinks a lot of libertarians are being suckered by pseudo-moderate Leftist sites like tompaine.com

Strange Justice has an amazing story from Illinois. They framed an innocent guy and sent him to death row for murder. Fortunately he has now been exonerated. But they still have not got around to prosecuting the heavy criminal who actually confessed to the murder! Do they only prosecute innocent people?

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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BOOK REVIEW: THE END OF TIME BY DAVID HOROWITZ

Published by Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2005

David very kindly sent me an autographed copy of this book. I get lots of books for one reason or another but rarely read much of them. I have read so many books in my 61 years on this earth (when I was aged 8 I was already reading three books a week) that I mostly just read articles now. So when I picked up David's book, I expected just do do a quick scan. Instead I sat down and read it right through. The book crams an immense amount of thought into 155 pages but it is all expressed with such simplicity and clarity that it is for all that not the slightest labour to read. I have always said that obscure writing betrays confused thinking and that clear thinking yields clear expression. David's book is an excellent example of the latter.

The book is basically a reflection on life in general and David's own life in particular. As such it is not a directly political book but, given David's life in politics, there are many penetrating reflections about politics in it. So I think I will here mainly share a few quotes that I particularly liked as accurate summaries of the world:

"If you look long and hard enough, you will find that a lie is at the root of most human wrong"

"The desire for more than is possible is the cause of greater human misery than any other"

"How can utopians dream of changing the world when it is so difficult to lose an inch off one's waistline?"

"My father's prophet was Karl Marx, who was himself descended from a long line of Rabbis"

"What Mohammed Atta and my father wanted was an escape from this life"

"My father was a decent man who was not prepared to harm others ... But along with millions of decent progressive souls, my father abetted those who did just that. Progressives looked the other way and then endorsed murder of untold innocents for the same reason that Mohammed Atta and the Islamic martyrs did: to make the new world possible"

"This very envy and the cruel desire for revenge that accompanied it were Joseph Stalin's most human traits"

"To the devoted [Leftist] the source of human misery cannot be located in a deficiency of self [i.e. a deficiency in himself], let alone the wish to escape it [i.e. escape his own deficiencies]"

"Self-loathing is the secret revolutionary passion"

"Social redeemers ... cannot live with themselves or the fault in creation, and therefore are at war with both. Because they are miserable themselves, they cannot abide the happiness of others"

"The Devil they [Leftists] hate is in themselves"

"The personal dream of every revolutionary is to be at the center of creation and the renewal of the world"

"Here is why you cannot change the world: Because we -- all 6 billion of us -- create it"

"The lack of respect for immovable differences is the cause of endless human grief, and is why my father's dreams have failed"

Because the book is largely autobiographical, we read a lot about the type of person David is and the type of person his father was. And the thing that stands out starkly is what an unhappy soul David's Marxist father was and what a gluecklich (lucky, happy) person David comes across as being. This of course fits in perfectly with what heaps of survey evidence shows -- that conservatives are happier people than Leftists (see e.g. here). And how happy you are is a fairly stable part of what you are -- almost regardless of your objective circumstances -- as this shows. Where David ended up ideologically, then, was predictable from his personality. And ditto for his father. Nature certainly triumphed over nurture in David's case.

It is always impressive how much personality -- what you basically are -- is central in the end. David and I have very similar views politically but we could not have had more different life-histories. I am a lifelong conservative from parents whose main attitude to politics was skepticism, for instance. But I too see myself as having had a full and blessed life and that obviously underlies my views. Happy people have no axe to grind and they have no need to deny reality.

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ELSEWHERE

Wow! The Terri Schiavo controversy is not over yet. Sherry Eros M.D. critiques the autopsy report and comes to some pretty savage conclusions.

I received a number of interesting email comments in response to my post yesterday about conservative blogs falling behind. I have posted three of the comments here

I have also received some interesting comments in response to my post about the motivations of Jewish Leftists. I reproduce two of them here.

The latest Leftist hysteria: "Gays are the new Jews". What an insult to Jews! Jews really are under attack in much of the world today (not least from Leftists) -- while homosexuals are mostly pandered to these days.

There is an interesting outline here of what Arnie's special election in California is all about. It should certainly stop some Democrat abuses if the voters support it.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

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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