THE WAR WITH ISLAM

Leftists as battered wives: "The aftermath of the London terrorist bombings has demonstrated that the antiwar Left is severely afflicted by the political equivalent of battered-wife syndrome. With each new beating, the scarred and bruised victims of spousal abuse tend to excuse and rationalize the actions of their tormentors. A stubborn unwillingness to accept the proposition that their partners are violent louts plunges these woeful women into a morass of self-deception that spawns only further violence. The far Left has similarly proved unable to liberate itself from the web of rose-tinted delusions that it has spun about the nature of Islamic extremism. After each al Qaeda outrage, leftist ideologues are quick to castigate their own countrymen for a catalogue of sins, both real and imagined.. The streets of Britain's capital city were still damp with innocent blood when the same obscene dance of political self-flagellation began... In the world according to radical Islam it's the jihadist way or the highway, and these 7th-century dogmas represent the only acceptable outcome to al Qaeda... Fixated by a knee-jerk hostility towards all things American, the likes of Ali, Fisk, and Galloway refuse to recognize the existence of this conflict, much less the stakes that are involved. Their primal instinct is to appease bin Laden and his cohorts rather than oppose them. But Winston Churchill defined an appeaser as "someone who feeds the crocodile in the hopes of being eaten last." The sooner we accept the fact that this is a war; then the sooner we can get about the task of winning it".

The Marx-Muslim pact: "In 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact cleared the way for Hitler to start World War II. The Pact caught the world by surprise, because it was an alliance between two bitter enemies, Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Similarly, what made possible the recent bombings in London, and the many more that will follow in Europe and the U.S., is the Marx-Mohammed Pact. Once again, two sworn enemies, Marxism -- specifically the cultural Marxism commonly known as Political Correctness -- and Islam, have made a Devil's bargain whereby each assists the other against a common enemy, the remnants of the Christian West. From a Fourth Generation war perspective, the most important fact about the London bombings is that they were carried out by legal residents of the British Isles.... This fact in turn points to what may be the West's biggest strategic blunder, namely its immigration policies. European and American immigration policies have imported, and continue to import, millions of immigrants who are deeply hostile to the traditional cultures of their new homelands... Obviously, these immigrant Moslem communities pose a clear and present danger to the Western countries they now inhabit. Equally obviously, given its history and what its adherents are doing around the world, Islam itself is a threat. Europe, and the United States, need to stop more Islamics (and, in the U.S., Hispanics) from coming, and at least some of the Islamics now in residence must go".

Seems reasonable: "The home secretary, Charles Clarke, yesterday widened the worldwide net that will allow him to exclude or deport from Britain Islamist militants whose inflammatory language or behaviour is judged to foment or provoke terrorism. He told MPs that intelligence, foreign and home office staff would compile a database of individuals which may lead to them being refused entry to the UK, or even being removed. Civil liberties groups last night said that they were alarmed by the list's catch-all nature. Under the plan, a systematic index will be drawn up of what the home secretary called 'unacceptable behaviours.' Included on it will be anyone preaching, running a website or writing articles which are 'intended to foment or provoke terrorism.'"

There is a rather idiotic article here (PDF) by some State Department hack, arguing that peace in Europe depends on Europe making (unspecified) accomodations to its Muslim population. Since Europe has already bent over backwards to accomodate the Muslims and got only aggression in response, I cannot even imagine what more the dolt thinks Europe could and should do. I think it is time for the Muslims to be making some changes, not the other way around. If they don't like European ways, they should be given a one-way ticket back to their ancestral homelands.

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I normally read Brian Leiter only for laughs but I found this post oddly reassuring. There have been quite a few doubts expressed about whether John Roberts really will be conservative if he is elevated to SCOTUS. His whole career could be interpreted as aimed at sliding himself into a seat on SCOTUS by not revealing anything much about what he really thinks. But Leiter actually mounts some reasonable arguments for believing that Roberts IS conservative -- though almost anybody would be to the Right of Leiter, of course. I also liked this flash of honesty from Leiter: "on a range of issues the U.S. Supreme Court is unavoidably a super-legislature". I have a feeling that I will be quoting that again sometime. Kudlow and Manuel Miranda of the WSJ are also reassuring about Roberts.

A disturbing record: "Seven of the nine current Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents. ... Earl Warren, the father of modern judicial activism, was an Eisenhower appointee. So was William Brennan, who inherited Warren's mantle as the Court's liberal giant. Harry Blackmun, the author of Roe v. Wade, was a Nixon appointee. The most liberal member of the current court, John Paul Stevens, was a Gerald Ford selection. David Souter, a George H. W. Bush and Warren Rudman choice, told the Senate he saw himself in the tradition of the great Justice John Harlan, who revered precedent. But on the court he's arguably been more of a liberal activist than either of Bill Clinton's two justices (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer). Anthony Kennedy, selected by Reagan after Robert Bork was defeated, was said at the time to share 80% of Mr. Bork's philosophy. But Mr. Kennedy's jurisprudence has proven to be nearly as malleable as Justice Souter's, especially on the cultural and church-state issues where the Court has become the de facto national legislature. ... Our objection to Roe and to Lawrence, the Texas sodomy case, isn't on the underlying policy. It is that the Court has hijacked those social disputes from democratic debate, preventing the kind of legislative compromises that would allow a social and political consensus to form. ... But there are many other issues on which the post-Warren justices have arrogated to themselves an almost legislative authority: overturning voter-passed Congressional term limits by 5-4, dictating racial and gender preferences in law, extending the Commerce Clause to encompass virtually any federal authority as in last term's Raich medical-marijuana decision, or expanding eminent domain in Kelo. ... But the larger goal should be to...restore the High Court to its more restrained historical role. In a phrase, this means putting an end at last to the judicial legislating that was unleashed in the Warren era and that has slowed only on occasion ever since."

GIs criticize Dems: "Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican. Pentagon officials said soldiers criticized the harsh comments made recently by Senate Democrats... "They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers," one official told us. "The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of commentary, especially comparisons to the gulag".

Logical Meme has a horror-story about an out-of-control welfare system in Hartford, Ct.

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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PATRIOTISM, IMMIGRATION AND THE SUDANESE

After having lived for various periods of time in the USA, the UK and India, I am firmly convinced that Australia is the best place in the world in which to live. I imagine that 99% of Australians would agree with that. But I have never been patriotic. I have always seen faults as well as advantages. I am pleased to be an Australian but not proud to be Australian. If I identify with any group at all, it is with the Anglo-Saxon population worldwide. The Anglos versus the non-Anglos seems to me the differentiation that is most useful in identifying locations of civility and moderation.

But I don't see even the Anglos as a whole as being the pinnacle of anything. Most things in this life could be improved (with the exception of J.S. Bach) and I think that applies to populations as well. But how? I see some role for eugenics as long as it is voluntary and the success of the NYC Ashkenazim in almost eliminating Tay-Sachs disease from their community is a shining example of that. And human genetic engineering will undoubtedly in the future be a great boon too.

One thing I would particularly like to see is the minimization of the "Yobbo" or "Chav" component of Anglo-Saxon communities. And I think that SELECTIVE immigration is the only way of doing that which is currently feasible on a large scale. Just because the percentage of "good" genes (however defined) in one population is slightly higher than the average does not mean that there are no similarly "good" genes elsewhere. So a rational immigration program would aim to bring in the bearers of those good genes from wherever they are found and thus dilute the percentage of "bad" genes in the immigration-receiving country. And that I think is broadly what Australia's past immigration policy has done. We have very civilized Asian minorities which greatly enhance the amenity of our country.

The "refugee" component of our immigration program is however a worry. There appears to be some degree of selectivity even in that component of our program but only time will tell if it is sufficient. The disastrous situation in Sudan has led the Australian government into allowing into Australia a considerable number of Sudanese and I see them even in the streets of suburban Brisbane. Given the social pathologies that are uncontrovertibly associated with populations of African origin worldwide, I think it is most likely that the quality of life in Australia will be diminished by the Sudanese presence. I make no apology for predicting that Australian kind-heartedness will have been to our detriment in this instance.

So I am glad Prof. Fraser has raised the issue for debate here in Australia.

In case anybody thinks that I get it wrong above by attributing to genes what should be attributed to culture, I can only say that studies come out almost daily which show that more and more human attributes are genetically determined. Read here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here just for starters.

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The latest example of genetic differences at work: "The belief that chronic fatigue syndrome is "all in the mind" may finally have been laid to rest with the discovery that sufferers have biological abnormalities, researchers claim today. There are between 120,000 and 250,000 sufferers in Britain. The syndrome has been designated a neurological condition by the World Health Organisation. Also known as ME, it has confused scientists for years, with some clinicians dismissing it as a figment of the patients' imagination. Dr Kerr and his team now intend to examine a larger sample of sufferers. He said: "The involvement of such genes does seem to fit with the fact that these patients lack energy and suffer fatigue. This research will open the door to development of pharmacological interventions.".... Dr John Gow, a senior lecturer in clinical neuroscience at the University of Glasgow, is carrying out similar work, using DNA micro-analysis to examine differences in active and inactive genes in sufferers. His preliminary findings support those of Dr Kerr's group."

Five myths about Gitmo: "If the only news you had read about the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (Gitmo) came to you the past month, you might believe detainees were being brutalized at best, killed at worst. The chorus of critics peaked with the ridiculous: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., noted a "historic parallel" between American treatment of detainees with the way Soviets in their gulags treated prisoners..... A Pentagon investigation presented to the Senate last week found no link between alleged misconduct and Defense Department policy. Although investigators identified the tactics as "creative" and "aggressive," they concluded that they did not constitute "torture." Cooperating with his U.S. captors, one detainee drew diagrams of bombs he designed and built. He provided critiques of the design of "improvised explosive devices" used by insurgents in Iraq. Based on his critique, U.S. forces have a tool to combat these increasingly sophisticated devices, according to the Gitmo task force. The bottom line: A small amount of physical abuse emerges from individual behavior more than official policy, and the intelligence from interrogations is valuable in the war against terrorism.

Thomas Friedman gets it pretty right: "On the question of whether China's Cnooc oil company should be permitted by the U.S. government to purchase the U.S. oil and gas company Unocal, my view is very simple: let the market rule. Oil is fungible. It is all one global market. And if China wants to overpay for a second-tier U.S. energy company, that's China's business.... You know that cheap mortgage you just got? Well, who do you think subsidized it? In many ways it was China. Americans don't save anymore, and import more than they export. Normally, a nation that did that as long and lavishly as the U.S. has would have to raise interest rates to get other countries to hold its currency. But America has not had to do that, in part because China has been willing to hold most of the dollars it has been accumulating - gained from all the goods it is selling America - despite the low interest paid on those dollars and the fact that they have been depreciating against other major currencies."

Pius XII, a truly holy Pope: On Monday, July 25th, Rabbi David Dalin's book entitled The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis will be released and will surely start some controversy. The book examines the myth that has been generated by a handful of "liberal" journalists who have taken the liberty to rewrite the history of WWII, smearing the name of one of the most influential leaders of the early half of the 20th century, while using this controversy to attack the Catholic Church as a whole. David Dalin sets the record straight on who Pope Pius XII really was - a man who risked everything to help shelter and save thousands of Jews from Hitler's Final Solution.

Raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth ... on the Koran?: "As Muslim-Christian relations are under the spotlight around the world,US judges sometimes face a vexing question: Can witnesses raise their right hand and swear to tell the truth ... on the Koran? The recent refusal by a Guilford County, N.C., judge to allow a Muslim woman to swear upon Islam's holy text before testifying is, in part, a new First Amendment challenge. And here in the Tar Heel state, the idea of swearing on books other than the Bible has reinvigorated a debate on the relationship between faith and truth that goes back to the founding documents of both the Carolinas and the country."

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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Brookes News Update

US economy, production and jobs : Explains why America's unemployment rate remained very low in late 2000 even as manufacturing employment continued to fall
Liberal Party labour market reform founders on ineptitude: Liberal Party advisers have clearly failed to grasp the fact that significant and lasting labour market reform is unlikely to be implemented unless the union myth of raising real wages for everyone is demolished in the public mind
Liberal Party won't defend labour market reform against ignorant priests: Economic growth is the only real safety net the poor have, not unions, clerics or political hacks. So why can't the Liberal Party get this fundamental fact out among the public?
The Anniversary of Fidel Castro's Massacre of the Innocent: On 13 July 1994 the sadistic Castro ordered the massacre of a group of children. And to think this monster is the hero of Western intellectuals
The London bombings and the reaction to jihad: At least there are some in the media who are not afraid to speak out against those who excuse Islamofascist barbarism
Human slavery and pornography, at home and abroad: As pornography moves into the mainstream trafficking in women and children for purposes of sex is increasing

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It looks like GWB's nomination of John Roberts to SCOTUS is sound. There seems a good chance that he will be more conservative than previous GOP nominess such as O'Connor and Souter. I thought it would be good for the GOP if a black or Hispanic were nominated but that could have been seen by white voters as unacceptably politically correct. So GWB has looked after his base. There is an interesting analysis of why past GOP nominees have drifted Left here. Michelle Malkin has links galore on the Roberts nomination. Robert Koons has an excellent suggestion about what GWB could do if this appointment is filibustered.

A teethgrinder for Leftists: "Despite early predictions that the religious book market was just a flash-in-the-pan literary phenomenon, the growth of Christian books outpaced the adult trade category in 2004, with sales expected to soar in coming years. "People kept asking themselves, 'Is this a bubble? A temporary trend?"' said Albert Greco, a consultant with the Book Industry Study Group who has tracked the book business for 20 years. "No, it is a significant trend in the marketplace.""

Private airport screeners outperform government counterparts: "Privately employed airport screeners do a better job than government airport screeners, according to a recent U.S. government report, prompting a key lawmaker to call for a return to private airport screeners and other changes to the nation's aviation security system. 'Over the last three-and-a-half years we have spent billions of dollars creating a Soviet-style, centralized bureaucracy that has resulted in great inefficiencies and inflexibility with little improvement in screener effectiveness,' said Rep. John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Aviation. Mica was a lead author of the aviation security legislation approved by Congress after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Wanted: More choices for consumers: "It is sad but not surprising that cable companies across the country are marshaling all their political resources and lobbying might to halt the advance of cutting-edge technology that would offer consumers an alternative way to receive video and Internet service in their homes. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is the next generation of technology that can provide video and Internet service to consumers through upgraded fiber optic telephone lines. Verizon, SBC and other telephone companies -- big and small -- are now preparing to spend billions to make these necessary upgrades and improvements to their lines to bring their IPTV services to local residents in the coming months. ... If this technology is allowed to progress, tens of millions of residents in communities across the country could benefit from the first phase rollout of these new high-speed, ultra high-tech video services."

Moral illiteracy on the Left: "The bombings in London on July 7, which killed 53 people and injured many more, were a powerful reminder that terrorism remains a clear and present threat in our cities. But they were also, to me, a reminder of something else... the response to terrorism even on the moderate left remains an egregious moral muddle. Perhaps the starkest illustration of this mindset is the fact that, only a couple of days after the bombings, the British Broadcasting Corporation reverted to its policy of avoiding the use of the word ''terrorist." According to BBC guidelines, the T-word ''can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding," and ''careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments" ought to be avoided.... Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and a leading left-of-center commentator on the Middle East, argues on his website and in an article at Salon.com that the London bombings are ''blowback" from the US and its allies' misguided policies. Cole pooh-poohs the idea that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is a product of hatred for the West's democratic values. In his view, it is a response to specific Western policies that are perceived as a war against Muslims, from Israeli oppression of the Palestinians to the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, took place before the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan..."

What we mean by individualism: "Brad Stone recently delivered a lecture at the Mises Institute concerning the relevance of the work of Robert Nisbet to the libertarian movement (audio | video). He argued that it is important for libertarians to also be "communitarians," defending traditional social institutions from the state. He cautioned against the valorization of the individual and any position that acknowledges only individual rights as ideas that lend themselves to a growth in state power."

UK: New terror laws by December: "Charles Clarke said today that the Government has cross-party support for its anti-terrorism legislation and expects to have a range of new powers signed into law in December. The Home Secretary made the announcement after a meeting with David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, and Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, this afternoon.Mr Clarke said there were 'no main outstanding issues of difference' on the Government's proposed Counter-Terrorism Bill which would criminalise the acts of planning or training for terrorist attacks, as well as 'indirectly inciting' terrorist acts."

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

Laffer must be laughing: "So the deficit-the federal budget deficit-is declining sharply, more sharply than just about anyone in mainstream media anticipated. According to figures from the Office of Management and Budget, the deficit is projected to decline from $412 billion in 2004 to $333 billion in 2005, a 19 percent decline. OMB further projects, obviously with less certitude, that it will decline to $162 billion in 2008. If so, that will mean that George W. Bush will have more than kept his promise to cut the deficit in half in his second term. Back in February, OMB projected a 2005 deficit of $427 billion".

The primitive roots of Leftism: "Two years ago, economist Paul Rubin published a paper called Folk Economics. As this description points out, Rubin suggests that in a hunter-gatherer tribe, goods are exchanged mostly through sharing and reciprocal altruism. There were no visible gains from impersonal trade or economic growth. In this zero-sum environment, people evolved an instinct to resent and punish those who took too much. Rubin's thesis is that the instincts that evolved in prehistoric tribes account for the misguided "folk economics" that many people believe today. Anti-globalization and opposition to free trade reflect the fear of strangers that was inherent in tribal society. Resentment of the rich and a belief in redistribution reflect the hunter-gatherer's zero-sum thinking."

The tax-eaters are powerful: "Steven Malanga shows how coalitions of public employee unions, workers at government-funded social service organizations, and recipients of government benefits have seized control of the politics of the big cities that make up the heart of Blue America. In New York City, this coalition has helped roll back some of the reforms of the Giuliani years. In California cities and towns, it is thwarting the expansion of private businesses. In nearly 100 municipalities, it has imposed higher costs on tens of thousands of firms by passing "living-wage" laws. Whereas the New Left of the 1960s believed-idealistically, if somewhat naively-that government could solve the biggest problems of our times, this New New Left is much more narrowly and cynically focused on expanding government programs to increase its own power, pay, and perks. And, as Malanga shows, the New New Left is emerging as the most powerful element of the national Democratic Party coalition."

Egypt gives the GOP a lesson in tax cuts: "Egypt is introducing sharply lower rates of corporate and personal taxation from 1st July. Under the new code, which has been working its way through the debate and drafting process since September, most companies will pay 20% tax on their profits. Under the previous tax system, industrial and export firms paid 22%, while most other companies paid 40%. The new tax code preserves tax exemptions for profits from stock exchange investments, on dividends paid to shareholders and on interest payments from banks and bonds. Current exemptions given to companies in free trade zones and industrial zones will be abolished, however, at least for new entrants. For individuals, the maximum tax rate is now 20% instead of 40% and the thresholds for each tax bracket have been raised. Individuals will pay 10% tax on income between 5,000 and 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($862 and $3,448) a year, 15% on income between 20,000 and 40,000 pounds a year and 20% on any income above 40,000 pounds. Under the previous system, the maximum rate of 40% kicked in at a threshold of 16,000 pounds."

Realism about child labour creeping in: "When he started working on child labor issues six years ago, Professor Edmonds said in an interview, "the conventional view was that child labor really wasn't about poverty." Children's work, many policy makers believed, "reflected perhaps parental callousness or a lack of education for parents about the benefits of educating your child." So policies to curb child labor focused on educating parents about why their children should not work and banning children's employment to remove the temptation. Recent research, however, casts doubt on the cultural explanation. "In every context that I've looked at things, child labor seems to be almost entirely about poverty. I wouldn't say it's only about poverty, but it's got a lot to do with poverty," Professor Edmonds said. As families' incomes increase, children tend to stop working and, where schools are available, they go to school. If family incomes drop, children are more likely to return to work... "Child labor does not appear to vary with per capita expenditure until households can meet their food needs, and it then declines dramatically," Professor Edmonds wrote"

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ELSEWHERE

A lot of people have got their knickers in a knot about Rep. Tom Tancredo saying that a nuclear attack on the USA by Islamics could be responded to by the USA nuking Mecca. But that threat seems to me to be just the sort of thing that kept the peace during the cold war. "Mutual Assured Destruction" they used to call it.

An email from Ralph Zwier of ICJS: "Over the past few weeks I have been reading article after article on the London bombings. None of them have really fired me up. But today there are two articles which I found interesting: Lipstick lesbian daring to confront radical imams and Transcript of BBC4 interview. One is an unequivocal condemnation by a Muslim Canadian, Irshad Manji. The other is a waffle of semi condemnation by an English Muslim leader in a BBC4 interview. You need to read them both to contrast (a) the unequivocal condemnation (and a fun read on a serious theme) and (b) the more typical equivocation by the peak bodies in the British Muslim world. You'll probably find the BBC4 interview quite uninteresting, but I think it's necessary to persevere with it for an understanding of the magnitude of the problem facing UK".

Immigration law irrelevant in Britain: "More than a quarter of a million failed asylum-seekers are still living in Britain, despite the Government's drive to increase the number of removals. A highly critical report by the National Audit Office exposes the chaos of the asylum system, with a catalogue of failings including financial mismanagement and near-shambolic record keeping. The report states that the Immigration and Nationality Directorate is struggling to meet the Government's latest target that by the end of the year the number of monthly removals should exceed applicants rejected. The number of failed applicants removed from the country fell last year."

UK: Six arrested under anti-terror act: "Ten days after Islamic radicals carried out deadly attacks on the London transport system, Britain's largest Sunni Muslim group today issued a binding religious edict, a fatwa, condemning the July 7 suicide bombings as the work of a 'perverted ideology.' In the northern city of Leeds, which has been a focus of the investigation into the bombings, six men were arrested under Britain's anti-terror law. West Yorkshire police said the men are not believed to be involved in the bombings, but offered no further details on why the six were arrested."

The Guardian, Britain's top Leftist paper, has come under a lot of fire over the fact that it employs a Muslim extremist as a journalist. Scott Burgess has the lowdown. Tim Blair comments too.

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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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 note that conservatives foresaw the Islamic menace from within British society

On Political Correctness Watch I note that journalists are being penalized for wanting to mention blackness

On Greenie Watch I note that bird droppings are the mnajor cause of chemical contamination in the Arctic. Ban those polluting birds!

On Education Watch I submit that "white guilt" education in British schools was a major cause of the London bombings

On Socialized Medicine I note that those wonderful regulators whose job it is to protect you are allowing mentally ill doctors to practice

On Gun Watch I note that George Soros wants your gun

On Leftists as Elitists I note that the Leftist British elite are still protecting terrorism

On Majority Rights I note evidence of genetic determinism for social behaviour

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ELSEWHERE

More evidence that happiness is a stable trait: "In a boost for exam-flunkers everywhere, a study published yesterday in the British Medical Journal found the levels of satisfaction with life recorded by 550 Scottish men and women aged 84-85 were unaffected by their mental abilities, either when they were young or much later.... The study group, all born in Lothian, Scotland, in 1921, were remarkable for the fact they had all undergone tests of mental ability when they were about 11 years old, and the records had been preserved. The tests were repeated a few years ago, when they were about 79. They each ranked their happiness on a scientifically validated satisfaction scale."

Police enforce the law! "One day in April, Jorge Mora Ramirez stopped his car on the side of a road in the small southern New Hampshire town of New Ipswich and was making a cell phone call when a New Ipswich police officer approached him. The officer questioned Ramirez, 21, a Mexican who acknowledged he was in the country illegally, and the New Ipswich police tried to get federal immigration authorities to arrest him. But when immigration officials demurred, not considering Ramirez enough of a priority for their scarce enforcement resources, the New Ipswich police took the highly unusual step of charging Ramirez with criminal trespassing. 'I wanted the federal government to understand that I was going to take some type of action,' said New Ipswich Police Chief W. Garrett Chamberlain. 'If I can discourage illegal aliens from coming to or passing through my community, then I think I've succeeded.' At minimum, Chamberlain has succeeded in creating a storm of controversy, as well as interest in his idea. Hudson, NH, Police Chief Richard Gendron has charged 10 illegal immigrants with criminal trespassing in recent weeks."

Judges should judge, not legislate: "Like killer bees they will swarm in droves. No nominee will be safe. Ultra-Conservative. Stealth Liberal. Anti-(insert special interest here) Ideologue. Extreme Judicial Activist. The labels ascribed to whomever President Bush nominates to the United States Supreme Court will be legion. And they will be entirely useless in assessing whether that man or woman is fit for the Court. This is no postmodernist-gibberish screed on how words don't mean anything. Indeed, the usual carping about labels in the law and in politics is considerably overwrought. Justice Rehnquist is generally conservative, and Justice Stevens is generally liberal. Labels often fit. But such generalizations are detriments to the impending debate because they obscure what really matters. Fidelity to the original intent of the Constitution must be the sole ideological criterion used to evaluate any nominee. Everything else is noise."

Black Muslims a danger too: "The FBI had reportedly arrested last week four American Muslims who were planning an attack on the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, Channel 2 News reported Friday evening. According to the report, the four - all African-Americans who had converted to Islam - admitted to attaining a map of the consulate, as well as address of synagogues in the Los Angeles area. Cell members also gathered information on El Al flights to and from LA".

The Vast Left-wing conspiracy: "Byron York was in Washington covering an anti-war rally for the conservative National Review, and the protesters were members of International ANSWER, a far-left fringe group whose acronym stands for "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism." "There were actually communists there," York recalls. "It was kind of amazing. They were calling each other `comrade.' In 2003, it was almost like `Jurassic Park,' seeing real, living, breathing communists walking around." And it occurred to the Vestavia Hills native that International ANSWER wasn't the only organization opposed to the war in Iraq in general and George W. Bush in particular. Rather, it was just one cog in a well-financed political machine that included such groups as MoveOn.org and America Coming Together and activists like billionaire George Soros, humorist Al Franken and filmmaker Michael Moore. Their mission: Dump Bush and jump-start the Democratic Party. So York began to connect the dots and put the pieces together for his recent book, "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy"".

A downhill slide: "Is the American tradition of self-reliance disappearing? That's a painful question for conservatives to ponder. After all, we're dedicated to reducing the role of government and promoting individual freedom and opportunity. But the facts, while sad, are clear: More Americans today depend more heavily on government than ever before. We've long sensed that was true, but now we have proof. Recently, The Heritage Foundation created an objective measure called the Index of Dependency, and it paints a frightening picture. Since 1980 -- the year that Ronald Reagan's election seemed to signal a coming shift in public policy -- our reliance on government has doubled."

There is a new lot of postings up from Chris Brand with more on the IQ and PC scene, particularly in Britain.

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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THE ISLAMIC MENACE

Nobody else seems to be saying it so I will: Do not the London bombings prove for once and for all that Enoch Powell was right?

British multiculturalism has fanned the flames of Islamic extremism: "That old racist notion of identity has thankfully crumbled. But nothing new has come to replace it. The very notion of creating common values has been abandoned except at a most minimal level. Britishness has come to be defined simply as a toleration of difference. The politics of ideology has given way to the politics of identity, creating a more fragmented Britain, and one where many groups assert their identity through a sense of victimhood and grievance. This has been particularly true of Muslim communities. Muslims have certainly suffered from racism and discrimination. But many Muslim leaders have nurtured an exaggerated sense of victimhood for their own political purposes. The result has been to stoke up anger and resentment, creating a siege mentality that makes Muslim communities more inward-looking and more open to religious extremism - and that has helped to transform a small number of young men into savage terrorists".

Conservatives foresaw the British problem: "The discovery that the four London bombers were British Muslims has ensured that one of the great social debates of the next few years will be on the sensitive issues of racial ghettos, integration in schools and multiculturalism. Fear of being labelled racist has helped to ensure that few have dared to put their heads above the parapet and challenge the orthodoxy that Britain is a multicultural nation and must behave like one. Ray Honeyford, a Bradford headmaster, was one of the first and most significant critics to challenge publicly multiculturalism's central tenet that all cultures in Britain are equally valid and no single tradition should be dominant... In a series of articles published in the Right-wing Salisbury Review in the early 1980s, he criticised Bradford city council's policy of educating ethnic minority children according to their own culture, predicting that the move would create divisions between white and Asian communities.... His views provoked an outcry among the anti-racism lobby. Some picketed the school and Mr Honeyford was subjected to personal abuse and accused of racial prejudice - leading to his early retirement in December 1985 to save his family from further harassment".

Appeasement in WW2 and today: "Appeasement did not end with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Even afterward, many in Britain (and even more in the U.S.) opposed active resistance. Conservative worthies like Lord Halifax sought a negotiated settlement. Fascists like Sir Oswald Mosley sought to bring Nazism to Britain. And communists and their fellow travelers opposed fighting Stalin's ally until Hitler invaded Russia. Even in January 1942, when German armies were at the gates of Moscow, George Orwell wrote in Partisan Review that "the greater part of the very young intelligentsia are anti-war . don't believe in any 'defense of democracy,' are inclined to prefer Germany to Britain, and don't feel the horror of Fascism that we who are somewhat older feel." ... The problem was that Hitler's stated demands were a pretext for his maniacal ambitions. He was unappeasable. So is Osama bin Laden, who wants to avenge centuries of humiliation supposedly suffered by Muslims at Christian hands and who dreams of establishing a Taliban-style caliphate over all the lands once dominated by Muslims, from western China to southern Spain. Pulling out of Iraq would only whet his insatiable appetite for destruction, just as giving up the Sudetenland encouraged Hitler to seek more"

Deportation: "The average American knows the so-called war on terror is not really a war on terror. He knows in his gut that what’s happening is that we are fighting another war with Islam. That’s what it is, no matter what the politicians say. This war against Islam is the flaring up again of a conflict that has been going on for 1,500 years... The West against Islam is nothing new. What’s new is that because of oil, the conflict has now expanded to the New World. There are no radical Muslims, nor Islamo-Fascists, there are just Muslims doing what they have always done--spreading Islam by force and terror. Compare the spread of Islam with that of Buddhism, and the truth of this history becomes obvious.... Deportation of Muslims from Western societies is not a picture the liberal press wants to see, but it may be necessary to do this. With their reluctance to assimilate, more so in Europe than in the United States, Muslim ghettos are breeding grounds for terrorists. Given the threat the practice of Islam poses to the West, it is not wrong to see it as a dangerous faction. Today, the Federal Republic of Germany sees nothing wrong with making the practice of Nazism illegal, so, someday the same may be the case for Islam in some Western societies."

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ELSEWHERE

I have just paid the fees for my son's first year at a major Australian university. They totalled $4,000 in U.S. dollar terms. That seems very modest to me. Most costs must be borne by the taxpayer. Middle-class welfare again. I would be interested to hear how that compares with good U.S. and U.K. universities.

The Plame/Rove "scandal": "Mr. Wilson presented himself as a courageous truth-teller who was being attacked by lying partisans, but he himself became a Democratic partisan (working with the John Kerry presidential campaign) who had a problem with facts. He denied that his wife had anything to do with his assignment in Niger, but Senate investigators found a memo in which she recommended him. Karl Rove's version of events now looks less like a smear and more like the truth: Mr. Wilson's investigation, far from being requested and then suppressed by a White House afraid of its contents, was a low-level report of not much interest to anyone outside the Wilson household... For now, though, it looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it".

Today's installment of Leftist hysteria: "Young liberals this week flocked to the nation's capital to hear, among other things, liberal television pundit and Democrat political strategist Paul Begala accuse Republicans of wanting to kill him and his children to preserve tax cuts for the rich." [Such a burst of absurdity rather leaves one at a loss for words but Six Meat and Aldaynet have some appropriate comments.]

Michael Darby is online again with a variety of posts of Australian and international interest. Michael's past posts can be accessed here and 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

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

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

High minimum wages create unemployment: "For the past decade, some of the least-skilled and lowest-paid workers in America have benefited from controversial programs known as living wage ordinances. Under these laws, companies with city contracts are forced to pay workers enough to live in that city, often $2 to $3 more than traditional minimum wage. But a new study shows the initiative as having mixed results in combating poverty. ... A 6 percent employment decline in cities that require a living wage, according to the study. Critics say it's no surprise that making companies pay higher wages results in their hiring fewer employees. 'They [the laws] don't work. They don't help the people that they are intended to help,' said Anthony Archie of the Pacific Research Institute. 'They're supposed to help low-skilled workers and they actually crowd them out from getting jobs.'"

Death tax bad for economy: "Permanently repealing the estate tax would save the government money in the long term and could produce 200,000 new jobs a year, according to a study released today that challenges the official congressional estimate that says the government would lose money. The study by the American Family Business Institute (AFBI) contends that congressional actuaries have continually underestimated how a cut in taxes increases economic activity and results in an increase in revenues collected by the government. The study says the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) wrongly claims repealing the estate tax would cost $140 billion in federal revenues. "The JCT is grossly overestimating the cost of repealing the death tax," said Dick Patten, executive director of the AFBI".

Finns doing well: "Fifteen years ago, Finland faced a full-scale depression, brought on by the loss of the country's most important markets as the Soviet Union disintegrated. Unemployment soared to 20 percent. But the Finns took control of their future, made painful adjustments and came out of the crisis with an economy that the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ranks as the most competitive in the world.... A relatively backward agricultural country became a high-tech powerhouse with labor productivity as good or better than that in the United States, but also a welfare state as generous as any in Europe. Perhaps the most revealing statistic behind this transformation is Finland's commitment to research and development. The Finns put 3.5 percent of their domestic product into R&D last year, second in the world to Sweden (about 4.3 percent) and far ahead of the United States (about 2.6 percent) or the E.U. as a whole (less than 2 percent).... Finland steadily increased government spending on R&D throughout the 1990s, when all other spending was either cut or frozen... Funding from public institutions constitutes only about a third of R&D expenditures; the rest comes from businesses"

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ELSEWHERE

A California Latino conservative says: "Much has been said about the Hispanic’s contribution to this great nation and to the state of California. Many came to this great country of ours to create a better life not only for themselves but for their children. Unfortunately, the Democrats’ message has been misleading and has taken the Hispanic vote for granted.... Seems like the depressed Democrats will sink to any level to stir the pot creating discontent and hatred. What the liberals do not understand is that while they view us as needy, poverty stricken or social service seekers, we as a people are in reality, entrepreneurs, and hard workers in pursuit of the American dream. Sure many of us started by working in the fields, picking, pruning, cultivating the crops. But many have pulled ourselves out of poverty by acquiring education or skilled trades that have helped us be successful... In 2004 there were over two million Hispanic owned businesses that generated $247 Billion dollars in the United States. A testament that the Republican philosophy of giving a “hand up” and opportunity, is far better than any “handout” the Democrats can contrive. We are basically entrepreneurs by nature and are not afraid of hard work."

Islamic totalitarians: "Seeing Islam as the basis of a political system touching every aspect of life, fundamentalists are totalitarian. Whatever the problem, "Islam is the solution." In their hands, Islam is transformed from a personal faith into a ruling system that knows no constraints. They scrutinize the Qur'an and other texts for hints about Islamic medicine, Islamic economics, and Islamic statecraft, all with an eye to creating a total system for adherents and corresponding total power for leaders. Fundamentalists are revolutionary in outlook, extremist in behavior, totalitarian in ambition. Revealingly, they vaunt Islam as the best ideology, not the best religion-thereby exposing their focus on power. Whereas a traditional Muslim would say something like, "We are not Jewish, we are not Christian, we are Muslim," the Malaysian Islamist leader Anwar Ibrahim made a very different comparison: "We are not socialist, we are not capitalist, we are Islamic." While fundamentalist Islam differs in its details from other utopian ideologies, it closely resembles them in scope and ambition. Like communism and fascism, it offers a vanguard ideology; a complete program to improve man and create a new society; complete control over that society; and cadres ready, even eager, to spill blood".

Leftist hatreds distort their response to terrorism: "In my estimation, the Left can't get past its overwhelming "Bush hatred" and "blame America first" attitude that predisposes it to have sympathy for America 's enemies. Unfortunately, the political Left is rife with terrorist sympathizers who can't fully fathom the heinous nature of evildoers that target innocent civilians for death. Denial, in my opinion, is an element when considering the Leftist mentality. In the wake of the London terrorist attacks, Bill O'Reilly's comments to a Leftist journalist were spot-on. The journalist thought that we needed to understand the perspective of terrorists: O'Reilly replied, "Serial killers have perspectives, too! We don't take their point of view!" Exactly. Arab grievances? Why should we make any excuses for murderers?"

Public broadcasting is socialist nonsense: "Congress is once again debating the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partially funds the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). Public broadcasting doesn't require fine-tuning. Like most other remnants of the Great Society, it needs to be killed. Much of the discussion centers on the question of public broadcasting's bias. That question was settled long ago. PBS' and NPR's programming has had an obvious leftist tilt since their inception."

Leftist blogosphere bad for Democrats: "While Moulitsas recognizes that the left-wing blogosphere is a world unto itself, if establishment Democrats have any awareness of that fact they have yet to betray it. Where Trudeau feels bloggers are a bunch of shut-in half-wits, the Democratic party seems to be under the impression that bloggers are an enormous, important constituency--and that it must go to whatever lengths necessary to win the hearts and minds of this virtual community. This seems like a major miscalculation, because the politics of the left-wing blogs are far out of the American mainstream. Where most of the 120 million Americans who voted in the last election bear a benign indifference to political matters, the left half of the blogosphere seethes with hatred for George W. Bush and his supporters. What's more, the blogs take numerous positions that would strike all but the most passionate Democratic partisans as patently preposterous. For example, several of the left-wing blogs recently ran an advertisement that referred to West Virginia Senator and former Ku Klux Klan Kleagle Robert Byrd as an "American Hero.""

Chris Brand has just put up a VERY incorrect proposal for how to deal with suicide bombers on buses and trains.

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.

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

Forgotten blogiversary

I seem to be good at forgetting my blogiversary. I missed it last year, too, I think. I first started blogging on July 10, 2002. I reproduce part of that very first post below:

DENIAL OF REALITY

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." (H.L. Mencken)

There would seem to be some possibility that excess ego can be curbed. The traditional Christian preaching of humility certainly assumes that. It is doubtful, however, that another underpinning of Leftism can be much influenced: Denial of reality.

Denial is perhaps best known through the work of Sigmund Freud as a classical neurotic symptom or coping mechanism. Instead of dealing with uncomfortable truths, the neurotic acts as if those truths simply do not exist. This is, of course, very maladaptive and creates at least as many problems as it solves.

Sadly, however, it would seem that reality denial is far from limited to psychiatric cases. Denial would appear to be in fact much more common even than excess egotism. Human beings generally do not handle reality well. That is why humans are such a drug-using species. Whether it be alcohol, cannabis, opiates, Khat, cocaine, nicotine or merely caffeine, few of us seem able to face life without chemical crutches. Straight reality is generally too much for us.

But WHY are human beings so uncomfortable with reality? Why do they use so many means to "escape" it? Again it probably goes back to more primitive times when reality was very oppressive and dispiriting. Only those who could escape reality in some way had the heart to carry on. So a talent for ignoring unpleasant truths was adaptive. In the modern world, however, reality is much more benign and, as Freud saw, denying it can easily descend into the psychopathological.

So any attack on the reality-denying habits of Leftists would appear doomed to failure. Even such an overwhelming reality as the utter collapse of the world's 70 year experiment with Communism caused them not at all to abandon their equalitarian mania but only to change their focus somewhat.

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ELSEWHERE

British idiocy: "The main spokesman for the Metropolitan Police on Thursday was Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick. He also complained about attacks on "purely innocent members of the public", thereby making one think that there might be other people (police? soldiers? politicians?), who are not purely innocent and should have been attacked instead. Asked about the nature of the terrorists, Paddick said: "Islam and terrorism don't go together.... Embedded in modern government are too many advisers who believe in a quietist policy. To them, the most important thing is to avoid a "backlash" against Muslims. But the truth is that the backlash only threatens because the terror strikes"

Principled Leftists: "The war in Iraq is a neo-conservative project, right? Yes, in the sense that in the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have come to believe that “the defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom.” But little noticed is the fact that some of the strongest supporters of this revolutionary idea are on the left. Prime Minister Tony Blair, leader of Britain's Labor Party, is the most obvious example. "A democratic Iraq,” he insisted earlier this year, “is not just a giant step forward for Iraq itself; it is a blow right at the heart of the global terrorism that seeks destruction not just in Iraq but in Britain and every major country in the world." Blair may be a rare figure on the left – but he is hardly alone, as has now been demonstrated by Thomas Cushman, Professor of Sociology at Wellesley and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Human Rights. Cushman has edited “A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq,” a collection of essays by two dozen liberal/left thinkers, all of whom, Cushman writes, represent “what might be called a third view. The basic elements of this perspective are a strong liberal commitment to human rights, solidarity with the oppressed, and a firm stand against fascism, totalitarianism and tyranny.”"

Why isn't there more of this?: "A prominent Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced today to life in prison. Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax was convicted in April of soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. The cleric addressed the court for 10 minutes before his sentencing."

Proof that Islamic terrorism is all because of Israel: "Thailand plans to replace 3,600 civilian teachers in the country's violent south with graduate soldiers and police. Deputy Education Minister Rung Kaewdaeng says only 1,000 of the mostly Busddhist teachers, who have requested transfers, will actually leave the region.The rest will move to town schools in remote areas. Most of Thailand's six million Muslims live in the south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand. An insurgency has flared sporadically in the region for decades, with more than 800 people killed since the latest unrest began in January 2004. Education Ministry data shows about 1,000 teachers have already left the region, where schools have been frequent militant targets as symbols of the government. As incentives to stay, the Education Ministry is offering 3,000 free flak jackets and faster licences for 1,700 teachers waiting to buy pistols."

An outbreak of commonsense: "As planning for terrorism becomes a part of daily life in the Western World, a growing number of disaster experts are calling for a dramatic reassessment in the way the nation plans for emergencies. The problem, they argue, is that the current top-down approach views the public as a problem to be managed rather than an asset to be utilized. Officials don't take into account people's natural willingness to help or address their most basic needs -- like concern about the safety of their spouses and kids. This upstart group of sociologists, physicians, and terrorism experts contends that the use of ordinary citizens during a large-scale emergency could save hundreds if not thousands of lives. And they are determined to ensure the public is properly prepared before the next catastrophic event."

Les Bates has an amusing example of sheer Leftist ignorance. I find that sort of thing in emails I get from Leftists too. Their ignorance of the facts is so vast that I do not know where to start sometimes. Not that facts bother them.

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.

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

Happy birthday to me! I turn 62 today



Brookes News Update

Government MPs plan to rip millions off in subsidies for ethanol producers : Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Nationals senator-elect Barnaby Joyce are proposing ethanol subsidies that will rip millions out of taxpayers' pockets
What is NAIRU?: Explains why the concept of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is an economic fiction
Market reality vs. socialist myths: Despite the collapse of the Soviet Empire and China's move to a capitalist oriented state socialist ideas still plague much so-called economic thinking
Free trade, manufacturing and wages: In the 1920s continental unions argued that their countries needed tariffs to protect their members' jobs from high-wage American labour
G8 bows to Islamic terrorism: USAID from spending millions on helping Arab Palestinian terrorist organisations

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ELSEWHERE

When Hitler bombed London, was Churchill to blame? "Last Thursday's London massacre of almost three score innocent people who were simply smashed to bleeding fragments on their way to work, has thrown a harsh light on the British Left. Normal people learned something from the horror – the shocking inhumanity of the attackers, perhaps. Not so the Left. Within twenty-four hours, the Guardian of London was pumping out its daily propaganda line: Don't blame the killers. Blame Bush and Blair for knocking over Saddam Hussein. Which makes me wonder whether the editors' own parents blamed Winston Churchill for the Nazi bombings of London. The Brit Left continues to mix up "the fire and the fire brigade," in Churchill's phrase. That is not by accident. In the upside-down prism of the Left there are no criminals, only police brutality. There are no hard-working achievers, only exploiters of the poor."

Dennis Prager on SCOTUS: "We don't know who President George W. Bush will nominate to succeed Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But this is certain: Democrats will smear the nominee. It will not matter how personally honorable, how intellectually honest, how legally profound this nominee is. Indeed, the greater the individual, the greater the personal attacks will be. Why? There are three reasons. First, Democrats believe that conservatives by definition are bad people.... The reason they see conservatives this way is that most people on the Left are certain that they mean well; therefore their opponents do not mean well. Moreover, liberals tend to assess policy positions on that basis -- are the motives good? -- rather than on the basis of what actually does good".

The Left does NOT support the troops: "Liberals, Democrats and others on the Left frequently state that they "support the troops." For most of them, whether they realize it or not, this is not true. They feel they must say this because the majority of Americans would find any other position unacceptable.... But most of the Left does not want the troops to win in Iraq. The Left's message is this: "You troops may think you are winning; you may think you are doing good and moral things in Iraq; you may believe you are fighting the worst human beings of our age and protecting us against the scourge of Islamic terror. But we on the Left believe none of that. We believe this war is being fought for oil and for Halliburton and other corporations; we believe you are waging a war that is both illegal and immoral; we believe you have invaded a country for no good reason and have killed a hundred thousand Iraqis [the Left's generally mentioned number] for no good reason; but, hey, we sure do support you."

Antisemitic graduate students: "A new survey of attitudes toward Israel among graduate students at top U.S. universities offers a disturbing if not frightening picture of increasing sympathy for the Palestinian cause and blame on the Jewish state for the lack of peace.... Titled How The Next Generation Views Israel, the report was written by Frank Luntz, a pollster who has conducted a number of surveys on the attitudes of young people toward Israel and Jewish life for the Israel Project and other groups. It was based on "face-to-face group interviews" Luntz conducted with nearly 150 students under age 30 in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. They attended law, business, journalism or government programs at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and UCLA.... What's more, Luntz found a thin line between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment among "these young elites," noting that "they may not be in the `Zionism is racism' camp, but they're not all that far away." He said the students "view any U.S. support of Israel as generated by wealthy Jewish special interests rather than as a reflection of the national interest.""

Welfare and foreign aid: "The world just witnessed a major campaign by well-intentioned individuals to shower billions on dictators and tyrants who use the money to exploit their own people. The West calls it compassion. One thing you can say about foreign aid is that is welfare writ large. It is the dole on the grand scale. And it has the same effects. When you pay people to be dysfunctional the amount of dysfunctionality will increase."

Surprisingly well done! "On 7/8, Markos Moulitsas announced at Daily Kos: "Today I did something I've never done before (not even during the Fraudster mess), and wish I'd never had to do. I made a mass banning of people perpetuating a series of bizarre, off-the-wall, unsupported and frankly embarrassing conspiracy theories. ... You know the ones -- Bush and Blair conspired to bomb London in order to take the heat off their respective political problems. I can't imagine what f---ing world these people live in, but it sure ain't the Reality Based Community."

An interesting question about the London bombings: "Let's see, have we heard anything from Senator Durbin? Maybe his cell phone went down. Maybe he can't get to the Senate floor to decry the London attacks and those who did so as being of the same ilk as Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Gulags and the murderous Pol Pot."

I loved this headline: "Study: Blacks in LA lag in many areas" [And grass is green too]

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"

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SOME HISTORY

A Leftist at work: "Mao was an early radical but he was driven by an overwhelming lust for domination. He championed women in his early writings but he exploited, betrayed, and consumed droves of them and drove into madness or despair three of his four wives. He had scorn or contempt for peasants and cared little if they died of hunger. Far from being a great guerrilla leader, he often commanded his forces into losing situations. Most of his closest colleagues feared his murderous tendencies and did what he wanted not out of loyalty but ultimately-Zhou Enlai is the outstanding example here-out of fear. Mao opposed fighting the Japanese despite the urgings of Josef Stalin, and never forgave the commanders of the only two battles against them. During the guerrilla period Mao encouraged the production of opium whose sale greatly swelled his treasury. His policies led to the death of up to a million landlords. He encouraged Kim Il Sung to attack South Korea. His economic policies and contempt for the peasantry led to the world's greatest famine in 1959-1961, in which at least 37 million people died. He provoked the Cultural Revolution and demanded detailed accounts of the torture and killing of its victims."

Leftists think nothing of lies: ""I am not and have never been a member of the Communist Party," Alger Hiss said under oath on Aug. 5, 1948, and calmly refuted the accusation of former Soviet agent Whittaker Chambers. The House Un-American Activities Committee had subpoenaed Chambers two days before. Then a senior editor at Time magazine, Chambers had testified reluctantly. Hiss, however, was not content to deny his communist ties. "So far as I know," he added, "I have never laid eyes on [Chambers], and I should like the opportunity to do so." The unruffled demeanor of Alger Hiss unnerved the HUAC members, who had trusted Chambers, but it did not surprise Chambers. He knew from experience that Hiss had the strength to be a communist, "that sense of moral superiority which makes communists though caught in crime, berate their opponents with withering self-righteousness." What would have shocked Chambers is if Hiss had yielded and wept and told the truth".

The murderous Che Guevara: "It's safe to assume that many people now sporting radical-chic Che T-shirts oppose capital punishment, but Che Guevara served as an executioner for Castro, as Guevara himself admitted in some of his diary entries... But Che Guevara's killing spree didn't reach its apex until after the corrupt Bautista regime collapsed and Castro put Guevara in charge of the San Carlos de La Caba¤a prison. Jos‚ Vilasuso, a lawyer and professor in Puerto Rico who had served with the group in charge of the judicial process at La Caba¤a prison, told Vargas Llosa that one night in 1959 he witnessed the execution of seven political prisoners. Another witness, Javier Arzuaga, a clergyman more inclined toward the liberation theology of Leonardo Boff than the conservatism of the former Cardinal Ratzinger, told Vargas Llosa that Che Guevara never overturned a sentence. He said he personally witnessed 55 executions, including that of a young boy named Ariel Lima. Estimates of the number of executions of political prisoners during the six months that Che Guevara was in charge of La Caba¤a vary. Economist Armando Lago has compiled a list of 179 executions. Pedro Corzo, who is making a documentary about Che Guevara, puts the number at 200. Vilasuso told Vargas Llosa that 400 political prisoners were executed under Guevara's command. Whether Che Guevara executed 400 political prisoners or "only" 200, it's hard to see how self-styled "progressives" can continue to justify their worship of the murderer".

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and America's support for the Afghans: "Just as radicals today like to think of themselves as "anti-anti-Saddam" so then they were anti-anti-Communist. In practice this meant they were the mainstay in the West for the Soviet empire and its expansion into vulnerable nations on its periphery like Afghanistan. The United States provided training and arms for the Muslim mujahideen in Afghanistan because its conscience was roused by the Soviet invaders whose scorched earth policies killed a million defenseless Afghan civilians before the resistance, with America's help, was able to stop them..... the victory of the mujahideen, made possible by America's gift of missiles, not only defeated the Red Army, but triggered the chain of events which led to the fall of the Marxist empire. In other words, U.S. support for the mujahideen eventually liberated a billion people whom the Soviet comrades of American and European leftists had enslaved for fifty and seventy years. In other words, America's support for the Palestinian, Egyptian and Saudi terrorists (Osama among them) who flocked to the cause was a somewhat bad deed in the service of a very great good one. It was not as bad a deed for example as saving and arming their friend Joe Stalin and his Marxist butchers in order to defeat Hitler, but it was an equally good one"

The Catholic "Treasure Chest" comics from the 1960s are reproduced here. The anti-Communist series is still pretty close to the mark.

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