A STUPID KRAUT

Prof. Dr. Gert Weisskirchen is a stupid Kraut and I want to tell you why. For a start, Kraut is the German word for cabbage and -- perhaps due to their liking for Sauerkraut (sour cabbage) -- it has become a contemptuous term for Germans generally. It was a term much used in two world wars during which Germans killed a lot of people.

In this month's British report on antisemitism, Prof Weisskirchen describes the causes of antisemitism as follows:

"Nationalistic or right-wing populist movements are trying to gain a foothold to varying degrees in all European States. Apart from bringing chauvinistic longings up to date, the common elements in their rationale are the emphasis on authoritarian thinking, the stirring up of resentment towards established parties and the mobilization of right-wing extremist attitudes in the form of xenophobia or even open racism and antisemitism.

A wealth of studies, beginning with the sociological writings of Theodor W. Adorno more than 60 years ago, demonstrate that xenophobia and modern versions of ethnic and racist sentiments with antisemitic prejudices are the most significant features of right-wing extremism and populism. Although they sometimes do without the key trappings of classic Fascism and Nazism, they still make use of its arsenal of discriminatory and denigrating contemptuous prejudices. In accordance with the classic scapegoat mechanism, foreigners are held responsible for whatever social problems exist, such as unemployment and failing social systems, and are disparaged as social parasites who dispute the right of the native population to the country's wealth. As a group they are ostracized as "disruptive factors" who need to be removed. Behind the "new" forms of antisemitism the old core still remains. If preventive measures are not taken to combat antisemitism at its source it will turn into a "social disease" that infests society, gradually eating it up from within and finally destroying it.

So "nationalistic or right-wing populist movements" are the prime source of antisemitism. There is absolutely no mention of Islam or Leftist "antizionism", which are by far the main forms of antisemitism today. Could the fact that the professor is also a socialist member of the German parliament have something to do with that? In his other writings he does occasionally mention Islam and European antizionism but he never mentions that antizionism is mainly Leftist nor does he discuss causes of any form of antisemitism other than "rightist" antisemitism. Apparently the causes of Leftist and Islamic antisemitism either do not exist or must not be examined.

And the amusing thing is that the alleged origins of rightist antisemitism that he mentions derive from one of the most discredited pieces of work in the whole of the social sciences -- the claims about psychological "authoritarianism" by Marxist theoretician Theodor Wiesengrund (aka Adorno). If Prof. Weisskirchen were a chemist, he would still be talking about "phlogiston".

Below are some of the books (not to mention hundreds of academic journal articles -- e.g here) that demolish in various ways the Adorno psychological theories that Prof. Weisskirchen believes in.

Altemeyer, R. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Christie, R. & Jahoda, M. (1954) Studies in the scope and method of "The authoritarian personality". Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.

McKinney, D.W. (1973) The authoritarian personality studies. The Hague: Mouton.

Kirscht, J.P. & Dillehay, R.C. (1967) "Dimensions of authoritarianism: A review of research and theory. Lexington: Univ. Kentucky Press

The Altemeyer book is particularly interesting. Altemeyer rather likes the Adorno theory but he devotes the first half of his book to a comprehensive literature review (up to about 1973) of all the vast body of research on the theory -- and finds that none of all that evidence actually supports the theory!

How stupid do you have to be still to accept such a theory?

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The scribble above is the new logo of the British Conservative party. How pathetic can you get? Background here. That the British Tories are now "green" seems to be the only message in it.

Change coming in Sweden? "Astonishing as it seems, it is just possible that on Sunday Swedes will throw out the centre-left Social Democrats who have governed them for all but nine of the past 74 years... But whether the centre-right alliance wins on Sunday or not, there are plenty of signs that the dream has darkened. It is costing too much, and immigration is straining the unspoken contract under which Swedes were happy to pay the Government for what they were confident they would later receive. The young challenger who threatens to topple G”ran Persson from his ten-year premiership is Fredrik Reinfeldt, who has been compared with David Cameron for his success in stitching together a coalition from the demoralised and fractured opposition on the Right. At 41, he would be Sweden's youngest prime minister. But he has been less coy than Cameron about campaigning for lower taxes, as well as for cutting unemployment benefits and demanding results from schools and healthcare. He may have struck a chord. Swedes are fed up with their high tax rates - and loathe the property tax of about 1 per cent of the value of a typical house.

Rare wisdom from a centre-Left government: "The [British] Government has pledged to use legislation to block the imposition of heavy-handed Wall Street-style regulation on the City if the London Stock Exchange is taken over by a foreign buyer. Users of the London market welcomed the promise, by Ed Balls, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, that the Financial Services Authority would be given the statutory right to veto rule changes proposed by recognised exchanges, including the LSE, if these were "disproportionate" in their impact on London. Mr Balls said in Hong Kong: "The Government's interest in this area is specific and clear: to safeguard the light touch and proportionate regulatory regime that has made London a magnet for international business." By contrast, the imposition on Wall Street of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act in response to accounting scandals such as Enron is seen as making it more difficult for New York to attract new issues. Nasdaq, the New York market, has 25.3 per cent of the LSE"

Unilateral moral disarmament: "As I write, it is one week after the Atrocity. And while we prepare for war, we ask ourselves, again and again, two questions: Why? Why would anyone be motivated to commit such a horror? How? How could the most powerful nation on earth let it happen? The answer in both cases is philosophical."

Geniuses get fewer hangovers: "High IQ scores may do more than separate geniuses from those of lesser intelligence, they could also be an indication of how much clever people are likely to suffer from hangovers. New research by Scottish scientists suggests that smart people are less likely to repeatedly experience the excruciating headache, nausea, dry mouth and sensitivity to light and sound that can follow a heavy night out. "The main finding of this study was that higher IQ scores at 11 years of age were associated with a reduced risk of alcohol induced hangovers in middle age," said Dr David Batty of the University of Edinburgh. In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Dr Batty and his colleagues looked at IQ test scores of 11-year-olds taken in Aberdeen in 1962 and sent questionnaires to them between 2000-2003 asking about their drinking habits. Responses from more than 7000 showed a higher IQ score was associated with a lower prevalence of hangovers."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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"Progressives" HATE progress

From my earliest curiosities concerning politics, I had an overriding concern that I believed everyone shared: What is the social, political, and economic system that is consistent with human flourishing, justice, and morality? After a long intellectual struggle, the answer has become quite focused: Society tends to thrive under freedom -- economic, cultural and political freedom.

When I see countries that are slowly leaving inhumane despotism behind and embracing freedom, how can I but rejoice? In China, Indonesia, India and Latin America, where there was poverty, dictatorship and death, there is now rising prosperity, hope and life.

Strangely, the political left does not share this joy. They bad-mouth and disparage it. Reading over course curricula, journals, magazines and blogs, one finds a return to the same points again and again: The environment is being abused. There are too many cars. The population is rising too fast. The distribution of wealth is unequal. Traditions are being lost.

Some concerns have legitimacy, but others are absurd, such as about population. Why regret that more people are living longer through better medical care and nutrition? Why regret the loss of the coercive regime that mandated only one child per family? Why regret the presence of the greatest economic resource of all: namely, people? Mao Zedong slaughtered millions. "Capitalist" China is allowing millions to live....

The perverse consequence is that liberals and socialists regret prosperity and strain gnats to find flaws in social progress.

More here

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Iraq in bed with Iran! "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki-who spent years in Iran during his exile from the Saddam Hussein regime-made his first official visit to Iran Tuesday, September 12, 2006 -five years and a day after the cataclysmic jihad terrorist attacks of 9/11/01. Mr. al-Maliki was greeted warmly by Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The meeting reflected growing economic ties between Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and the Shi'ite theocracy of neighboring Iran. Last month Baghdad finalized deals for Tehran to provide it with gasoline, kerosene and cooking fuel amid a shortage in Iraq. Immediately prior to al-Maliki's visit, a separate Iraqi delegation discussed additional petroleum deals, including possible Iranian investment in Iraq's fuel sector. Accompanied by mutual expressions of "brotherhood", the two Shi'ite leaders-al-Maliki and Ahmadinejad-pledged continued cooperation."

The Pope gets it: "The Pope has hit out at Islam and its concept of holy war during one of the last public appearances of his six-day visit to his Bavarian homeland. The thinly veiled attack by Benedict XVI on extremist Islam's justification for suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism came in a complex theological lecture to staff and students at the University of Regensburg, where the former Joseph Ratzinger taught theology in the 1970s. Using the words "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, the Pope quoted criticisms of the Prophet Mohammed by a 14th-century Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II Paleologos, in a contemporary debate with a learned Persian. "The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said. "He said, I quote: 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."'

Australia says: "Speak English" "All new Australian citizens would have to pass English tests under a plan to be announced soon by the Howard Government within weeks. Thousands of migrants are refusing to take part in taxpayer-funded English courses each year and those applying for citizenship only need to show they understand the questions they are asked for citizenship to be granted. A decision on mandatory English tests for citizenship is to be announced soon by Andrew Robb, parliamentary secretary for immigration and multicultural affairs. "If these people want to reside here and take citizenship, they should have a functional grasp of English, that is why I have been canvassing the idea of a compulsory citizenship test with an English test component," Mr Robb told the Herald Sun. All new non-English speaking migrants would also be encouraged to have English lessons to help them integrate into Australian society. "We already have a compulsory test for skilled migrants"



Gas falls nearly 11 cents a gallon in a week: "The average U.S. retail price of gasoline fell by almost 11 cents last week to $2.62 a gallon -- the lowest it has been in more than five months. The federal Energy Information Administration said Monday that U.S. motorists paid $2.618 a gallon on average for regular grade last week, a decrease of 10.9 cents from the previous week."

AZ: Judge won't block voter ID law: "A federal judge on Monday refused to block a law that requires Arizona voters to present identification before casting a ballot. U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver's order came a day before Tuesday's primary, the first statewide election for which voters will be required to show identification. The law has already been used in some municipal elections. The 2004 law requires that voters at polling places produce government-issued picture ID or two pieces of other non-photo identification specified by the law. It also requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Parts of the law were aimed chiefly at illegal immigrants."

5 lessons from the first 5 years of war -- from Newt Gingrich: "Five years after 9/11, the thing we have most to be grateful for is the fact that we have not suffered another terrorist attack. This is largely because of the courage and determination of one man, President George W. Bush. Faced with the deliberate and horrific attacks on 9/11, President Bush instinctively understood that this was a war. He demonstrated his courage by taking that war to al Qaeda to protect the American people. That decision was the decisive break with the terrorism-as-a-criminal-act strategy and in direct contrast to the terrorism-as-a-nuisance mindset held by many."

Jihad? Purloined pig meat spoils fundraiser: "A thief with a taste for pork put a damper on a fundraiser for scholarships by making off with nearly 350 pounds of porkburgers and hog dogs, police said. Cromwell Town Marshal Rich Snyder said the 300 pounds of porkburgers and 48 pounds of hot dogs were taken either late Saturday or early Sunday from the Cromwell Community Center's walk-in freezer in the town about 35 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. The theft was discovered Sunday morning when members of the Cromwell-Kimmell Lions Club went to pick up the meat. The group had planned to sell porkburgers and hot dogs Sunday at the Stone's Trace festival to raise money for scholarships for West Noble High School students. Snyder said an investigation is under way into the burglary."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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"YE HAVE THE POOR ALWAYS WITH YOU" (Mt. 26:11)

Some of the people the Democrats want the taxpayer to look after below:

For a lot of people, winning the lottery is the American dream. But for many lottery winners, the reality is more like a nightmare. "Winning the lottery isn't always what it's cracked up to be," says Evelyn Adams, who won the New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice (1985, 1986), to the tune of $5.4 million. Today the money is all gone and Adams lives in a trailer....

William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his Social Security. "I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare," says Post.... Post even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Within a year, he was $1 million in debt. Post admitted he was both careless and foolish, trying to please his family. He eventually declared bankruptcy. Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps.

Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the Virginia lottery in 1993. Now she's deeply in debt to a company that lent her money using the winnings as collateral. She borrowed $197,746.15, which she agreed to pay back with her yearly checks from the Virginia lottery through 2006. When the rules changed allowing her to collect her winnings in a lump sum, she cashed in the remaining amount. But she stopped making payments on the loan.

Ken Proxmire was a machinist when he won $1 million in the Michigan lottery. He moved to California and went into the car business with his brothers. Within five years, he had filed for bankruptcy. "He was just a poor boy who got lucky and wanted to take care of everybody," explains Ken's son Rick. "It was a hell of a good ride for three or four years, but now he lives more simply. There's no more talk of owning a helicopter or riding in limos. We're just everyday folk. Dad's now back to work as a machinist," says his son.

Willie Hurt of Lansing, Mich., won $3.1 million in 1989. Two years later he was broke and charged with murder. His lawyer says Hurt spent his fortune on a divorce and crack cocaine.

Charles Riddle of Belleville, Mich., won $1 million in 1975. Afterward, he got divorced, faced several lawsuits and was indicted for selling cocaine.

Missourian Janite Lee won $18 million in 1993. Lee was generous to a variety of causes, giving to politics, education and the community. But according to published reports, eight years after winning, Lee had filed for bankruptcy with only $700 left in two bank accounts and no cash on hand.

More here

Most poverty is behavioral, not financial

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There is a wonderful story here about the hunger for Christianity in Iran -- despite the risks from the Mullahs. Excerpt: "Though Iranians are tired of the government's religion, there is still great interest in spiritual things. This hunger is prevalent especially with the children of the 1979 revolution ignited by Ayatollah Khomeini's regime (over 50% of the total 70 million population) and who are seeking for answers beyond Islam. The good news is this: There is a tremendous openness and interest in Jesus Christ! The Christians in Iran, both from the over-ground and under-ground church, are keen evangelists and are more than ready to share Christ with the people despite the risks involved. Before any evangelistic effort, they will first pray and fast, sometimes for days, asking God to supernaturally guide them to people who are open. They then find that the Lord leads them in miraculous ways."

Listen to this colossal bit of feminist rubbish: "Many studies show a strong link in developed economies between low national birth rates and measures of gender inequality". The high birthrate in Muslim countiries and Africa goes with great female equality???

Who Is "Big Oil?": "When liberals and populist conservatives attack "Big Oil" for manipulating world markets, they're generally levying charges against capitalism and unfettered free markets. But who exactly is "Big Oil?" Believe it or not, "Big Oil" is actually "Big Socialism." The Economist recently looked at the largest oil companies in the world, and found that the thirteen largest oil companies in the world are all state-owned, where all profits go to national governments. These thirteen companies control 90 percent of the world's oil. Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly listed company in the world, comes in a measly fourteenth, and controls only a tiny share of the world' oil reserves."

Roman virtues: "You may think that a little African village in the bush has no government. In fact, it is all government, all the time. It is a collective that dominates the lives of its members and permits no competing institutions. In a sub-Saharan community, the individual appears to count for nothing. The family, the village, and the tribe are all. There is no privacy and little room for private life. Also, there are no aqueducts, and no roads or bridges built to last forever. There is no plumbing, and there are no Plinies. I believe that the primitive motivations of family and tribe are the roots of tyranny. This is a truth to which Rousseau was blind. His free and noble savage never existed. ... How fitting, I saw, that Rousseau's ideas should have become part of the architecture of socialist thought. But Rome transcended the family and the tribe. Rome did not respect all rights, but it protected many rights, including rights of property, at least in Pliny's time. Rome two thousand years ago was more like America today than is today's West Africa."

Lifestyles of the superrich and not so famous: "When I lecture to teenagers and twentysomethings here in the United States, I often ask members of the audience to 'raise your hand if you're wealthy.' Except for the young woman years ago who announced that her father owned a string of 7-11s, no one ever raises a hand. 'Oh but you are wealthy!' I insist. 'Each of us is among the wealthiest people ever to breathe.' My listeners think me mad. 'I'm middle-class, not rich' surely is what most of think to themselves. And they're right about being middle-class -- but they don't realize that to be middle-class in America today means to be superrich by historical standards."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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Democrat delusions

"On `This Week' recently, former co-host (and daughter of a former Democratic congressman) Cokie Roberts stunned host George Stephanopoulos when she said before the Connecticut primary that it would be a "disaster for the Democratic Party" if Lamont defeated Lieberman. "Pushing the party to the left," Roberts said, "is pushing the party to the position from which it traditionally loses."

The American people may not be happy with events in Iraq. But they do know, especially after events in Lebanon and the foiled British bomb plot, that we're in a war in which failure is not an option and for which repeating `Bush lied' is not a strategy. Americans will not put in power a party that accepts the proposition that global warming is a greater threat than terrorism, that thinks Wal-Mart is a plague on the poor and that wants to repeal the job-creating, economy-boosting and deficit-cutting Bush tax cuts. They will not put in power a party that thinks death is a taxable event and that success should be punished. They will not pass the reins to a party that denies us access to energy reserves offshore and in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and which thinks energy independence means building windmills and hugging caribou...

The Democrats think this year will be their 1994. As voters read the morning papers on their way to vote in November, and decide who should navigate these unsettled waters, the Democrats may well wake up the next day to find the Republicans still in power and Lieberman getting a congratulatory phone call from President Bush."

More here

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Islamic sleeping around: "For over a decade, the phenomenon of marriage without commitment, called misyar marriage, has been spreading throughout the Sunni Muslim world, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries. In such marriages, the woman relinquishes some of the rights that Islam grants her, such as the right to a home and to financial support from her husband, and, if he has other wives, the right to an equal part of his time and attention. In most cases, these marriages are secret, without the knowledge of the man's other wives - even though a marriage contract is drawn up in the presence of witnesses, and although consent is commonly obtained from the woman's guardian, and the marriage is registered and documented at the courthouse.... In a fatwa issued on April 10, 2006, the institute permitted marriages in which "the woman relinquishes a home, financial support, and her part [in joint life] with her husband, or part of it, and consents to the man's coming to her home whenever he wants, day or night." The fatwa also permitted marriages known as "friend" marriages, in which "the girl remains at her family's home and she and the man meet any time they want, either at her home or anywhere else, as they have no [joint] home and livelihood." ... Those opposed to misyar marriage - including the vast majority of women - claim that it exploits the difficult social situation of unmarried women in Arab society, and is designed primarily to sate men's lust, with no concern whatsoever for women's needs and the needs of children born of these marriages."

To filter the people: "I favor immigration. America is defined not by ethnicity but by a set of political ideas, and if others will embrace those ideas, I welcome them. I have helped people immigrate here, and they have made good Americans. I married an immigrant. But I also realize that the very culture that embraces immigrants has certain historical roots and depends on a critical mass of support, much of which has to do with the ability to live a good life here. In today's world of global TV and cheap and easy transport, to throw the doors of America wide open, as they were a century ago, would invite a swamping of American values."

Signs of our disease "It occurred to me that just in my lifetime, not only has technology accelerated, but so has the loss of our freedoms. When I was a young girl in school, we studied about the feudal system. We were told how awful it was, how the serfs had to yield up to 25% of what they grew or created to the lord and his knights. This of course was given for protection against raiders and space within the castle walls if that became necessary. Today, we - as a `free' people - give more than 50% of our earnings up to those who govern us!"

What's (not) the matter with the middle class?: "Note: Stephen Rose, Lawrence Mishel and others are debating the economic politics of the middle class this week. Here is Rose's opening salvo. For more than a decade, the Democratic Party -- the self-proclaimed party of the middle class -- has consistently lost the middle class at election time. ... What's the matter with the middle class? Democrats like to pin their defeats on national security and culture issues alone, but the progressive economic message is also to blame. What progressives generally say about the economy is unrelentingly pessimistic -- stagnant wages, rising costs, overwhelming burdens of debt. It's a message that doesn't resonate with the middle class -- not only because it's overly negative (by itself political poison), but because it's simply flat out wrong."

Busybody politicians, get off our backs: "Sometimes I think the type of people who run for office are the most dangerous people. Most of us want to run our own lives, or help people by offering them charity, or selling them things. The people who want to run other people's lives are ... different. In pursuit of their vision of the perfect world, they justify even absurd restrictions on our freedom. For example: In Belton, Mo., it is illegal to throw a snowball. In New Jersey and Oregon, it is illegal to pump your own gas. In Kern County, Calif., it is illegal to play bingo while drunk. In Illinois, it is against the law to hunt bullfrogs with a ?rearm. In Massachusetts, it's illegal to deface a milk carton. In Fairfax, Va., the use of pogo sticks is outlawed on city buses. In Palm Harbor, Fla., it is illegal to have an artificial lawn."

What's discrimination?: "Discrimination is simply the act of choice. When we choose Bordeaux wine, we discriminate against Burgundy wine. When I married Mrs. Williams, I discriminated against other women. Even though I occasionally think about equal opportunity, Mrs. Williams demands continued discrimination. You say, 'Williams, such discrimination doesn't harm anyone.' You're wrong. Discriminating in favor of Bordeaux wine reduces the value of resources held in Burgundy production. Discriminating in favor of Mrs. Williams harmed other women by reducing their opportunity set, assuming I'm a man other women would marry. Our lives are spent discriminating for or against one thing or another. In other words, choice requires discrimination. When we modify the term with race, sex, height, weight or age, we merely specify the choice criteria."

Stiglitz is wrong on government: "Joseph Stiglitz shared the Nobel Prize in 2001 partly on the basis of an important paper of his (with Greenwald): 'Externalities in Economies with Imperfect Information and Incomplete Markets.' In that paper he says: 'There exist government interventions (e.g., taxes and subsidies) that can make everyone better off.' Stiglitz is a prolific, outspoken, and outstanding spokesman for the pro-government school."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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Democrats for Worker Exploitation

"A group that raises money for Democratic Congressional candidates uses a canvassing company that pays some workers submimium wage, in apparent violation of Wisconsin state law, to talk about the need to raise the federal minimum wage, Isthmus newspaper has learned. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), based in Washington, D.C., has hired Grassroots Campaigns, a Boston-based for-profit company with operations in 18 U.S. cities, to conduct canvassing on its behalf. The DCCC's "New Direction for American" agenda, which provides the talkiing points canvassers are taught to use to solicit contributions, includes a call to "Raise the minimum wage....

These practices likely violate state law. Rose Lynch, spokesperson for the state Department of Workforce Development, says there are no special rules for canvassing firms and "even individuals paid on a commission basis must receive at least minimum wage...

How does the DCCC feel about having workers making less than minimum wage soliciting contributions to help it force the evil Republicans to raise the minimum wage? Burton said he'd look into this, then failed to call back.

Twice last week, former Grassroots Campaigns workers staged protests in front of its Madison office, 222 N. Hamilton St., holding up a huge banner. Says Kristan, "We will continue to demonstrate until Grassroots Campaigns pays all of its employees minimum wage."

More here

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Presbyterian rebellion in Sacramento: "Delegates from local Presbyterian churches decided Saturday not to accept gays -- or anyone who fails to comply with rules laid out in the denomination's constitution -- as church leaders. The decision, made by nearly 200 delegates from many of the 44 Presbyterian churches in the district, sent a clear message of protest to the denomination's national leadership. In June, a rule was passed at a national conference that gave individual districts the flexibility to ordain gay clergy. The decision Saturday lays the groundwork for a possible legal battle in the denomination's courts."

British Conservative leader attacks anti-Americanism: "David Cameron will criticise, in a speech today, a soundbite approach to foreign policy that sees only lightness and darkness in the world. In remarks that are certain to be seen as an attack on the conduct of foreign policy by the Bush Administration, supported by Tony Blair, the Tory leader will say that humility and patience have been absent from the making of foreign policy in recent years. In a reference to elements of the US Administration, Mr Cameron, speaking on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, will say pointedly that he is a liberal conservative, not a neoconservative. In his most substantial address on security policy, Mr Cameron will make a fierce attack on anti-Americanism, which he will say is an "intellectual and moral surrender". Sources close to the Tory leader said that his words did not mark any weakening in his support for the Iraq war, but they are nevertheless controversial after recent efforts to build bridges with the Republicans".

PETA? "Saudi Arabia's religious police, normally tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend mosque prayers, are turning to a new target: cats and dogs. The police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence. The prohibition on dogs may be less of a surprise because conservative Muslims despise dogs as unclean. But the cat ban befuddled many, since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats... The decree -- which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jidda and the holy city of Mecca -- bans the sale of cats and dogs because "some youths have been buying them and parading them in public," according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jidda's city government."

The Khatami tour: "The Bush administration repeatedly warned that Iran would face serious consequences if it defied international demands to shut down its nuclear weapons program. So what did it do when Tehran blew off the Security Council's Aug. 31 deadline to stop enriching uranium? It promptly issued a visa authorizing one of Iran's leading theocrats, former president Mohammad Khatami, to embark on a propaganda tour of the United States. It is the first such visa issued to an Iranian president since 1979, when Islamist radicals loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini seized the US embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats hostage for nearly 15 months. That'll show 'em".

Army shuns system to combat RPGs: "Sixteen months ago, commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter RPGs and other anti-tank weapons. Last year, a special Pentagon unit thought it found a solution in Israel -- a high-tech system that shoots RPGs out of the sky. But in a five-month exclusive investigation, NBC News has learned from Pentagon sources that that help for U.S. troops is now in serious jeopardy."

Tennessee plans ID checks of jailed immigrants: "Thousands of illegal immigrants who are arrested in Davidson County for other crimes would be deported each year, under a proposal being pushed by local law enforcement officials. By installing a federal immigration computer system in the Metro Jail and placing an immigration officer in the lockup full time, local authorities would be able to quickly identify criminal suspects who are in the country illegally and keep them from being released. The proposal is contained in an Aug. 15 letter from Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and comes on the heels of several high-profile crimes in which illegal immigrants are accused. Several of the illegal immigrants had been arrested repeatedly -- and not deported -- before committing more serious crimes."

Permission to speak freely: "As of Friday, when the 60-day blackout period for 'electioneering communications' by nonprofit interest groups begins, political speech will enjoy less protection than dirty movies. While a sexually explicit film is protected by the First Amendment if it has some socially redeeming value, an 'electioneering communication' is forbidden even if it deals with important and timely public policy issues. ... It seems Americans now need permission to speak out on political issues and petition the government. I'd suggest a constitutional amendment protecting those rights, but I thought we already had one."

Shades of Waco?: "As to Jeffs, the mindless media has always been enthralled by child-abuse crusaders. Janet Reno, one of the most murderous DAs, established her career by launching the day care child sex abuse witch hunt that gripped the nation in the 1980s. She used fabricated accusations elicited from children (who never lie, right?) with the aid of highly suggestive techniques, to imprison her victims absent corroborative evidence. These cases served as a professional stepping stone for Reno, who went on to commit even greater crimes. Here are the Jeffs arrest warrant and affidavit. He is charged with being an accomplice to rape, no less. Such an accusation conjures visions of Jeffs holding the victim down while another commits the act. Jeffs, however, is charged, based on hearsay, with encouraging a girl, then under 18, to submit to intercourse with her husband, who was a little older."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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In memoriam for all those who died on this day in 2001 at the hands of Islamic haters

It is their common hatred of ordinary people doing well for themselves that draws the Left to Muslims -- who otherwise epitomize all that the Left say they disapprove of.

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR PATRICK FITZGERALD: OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE

Excerpt from an article by lawyer Raymond S. Kraft

On July 14, 2003, Robert Novak published a column in the Washington Post in which he identified retired Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife as Valerie Plame, who worked for the CIA. Her husband immediately charged that somebody in the White House, whether Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, George Bush, or one of their aides acting on orders, had "outed" his wife in conspiratorial retaliation for Wilson's charges in the New York Times that Bush lied when he cited intelligence that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Niger. Wilson, with brazen disingenuity, took monumental umbrage at the idea that Bush, Cheney, Rove, or all of them, were trying to "discredit" him in response to his overtly partisan, political attempt to discredit President Bush. Wilson's claim that President Bush lied proved, in the end, to be a lie, and it is Wilson's own reputation that now lies on the ignominious dunghill of history.

These events led to the now infamous investigation of the alleged "outing" of the allegedly "undercover" Valerie Plame by Somebody in the Bush White House by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. I will not detail the subsequent convolution of events. They are too well known to need repeating. The Wickepedia article on Valerie Plame runs to eleven pages, with many footnotes, references, and citations.

Three years later, on September 7, 2006, Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage publicly, finally, acknowledged that he was Novak's source for the disclosure that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA. The Associated Press report by Matt Apuzzo (September 8) states that "Armitage's admission suggests that the leak did not originate at the White House . . . " ...

Armitage reports, too, most notably, that (as the AP story reads): "Fitzgerald, he said, had requested that he not talk about his role in the case, a restriction that was lifted only Tuesday." In his interview on ABC News Armitage said that his disclosure was inadvertent, merely careless or negligent, an unfortunate bit of gossip, and it apparently did not violate the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which requires specific intent. But it did hobble the Presidency for three years.

On July 11, 2006, Bob Novak reported that "For nearly the entire time of his investigation, Fitzgerald knew - independent of me - the identity of the sources I used in my column of July 14, 2003 . . That Fitzgerald did not indict any of these sources may indicate his conclusion that none of them violated the Intelligence Identities Act." In other words, from very early in this long investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald knew that Richard Armitage was the source of Novak's information, and that the White House was not, and that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act had not by violated. Not by anyone. And Fitzgerald concealed this knowledge, his knowledge that the prime suspects were innocent, and told Armitage not to talk about it....

If, promptly upon learning, a year or two ago, that Richard Armitage was the source of the leak, Patrick Fitzgerald had disclosed that the "case had been solved, the leak has been found, and no crime has been committed," he would no longer have had any reason to continue his investigation, interviewing the President, parading Cheney, Rove, Libby, and other witnesses before the Grand Jury, or himself before the phalanx of cameras on Capitol Hill. He would have had to find other work... In my opinion, it is time to prosecute the Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for obstruction of justice.

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There is an unsigned feature article in Britain's Sunday Times that revives the breastbeating about "racism" in the much misrepresented "Tuskegee" study of syphilis in American blacks that began in the 1930s. The author is aware of the debunking given to the misrepresentations by Shweder but ignores most of the points Shweder made. The article seems to be a promo for a forthcoming book called Medical Apartheid by historian Harriet Washington, to be published in the US early next year. So what is new in the new book? Apparently, all that has been discovered is that the medical researchers of the 1930s had "racist" beliefs. Since just about everyone in the 1930s had racist beliefs by the standards of today, that is not much of a discovery. For details about the horrific "treatments" available for syphilis in the 1930s, see here.

A Leftist here has a big list of historical events that show how hostile to the Left the Islamists are. He concludes: "It does not need slogans to understand that the Islamist programme, ideology and record are diametrically opposed to the left - that is, the left that has existed on the principles founded on and descended from classical socialism, the Enlightenment, the values of the revolutions of 1798 and 1848, and generations of experience."

A REALLY bent poll: "The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results. Tracy Costin pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, 46, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced Nov. 30.... According to a federal indictment, Costin told employees to alter poll data, and managers at the company told employees to "talk to cats and dogs" when instructing them to fabricate the surveys. FBI Special Agent Jeff Rovelli said 50 percent of information compiled by DataUSA and transmitted to Bush's campaign was falsified, the Connecticut Post reported Thursday."

Professor Stiglitz and the minimum wage: "Nothing gets me more upset than when someone brings up an argument supporting minimum wage legislation. It's not that I can't counter the argument; it's just that it takes some time to do. So, once and for all, I'm going to target the main motivation for minimum wage advocates in academia: politics. Minimum wage is one of the only subjects nearly all economists agree upon. Quite simply, to believe in the merit of minimum wage laws is to misconstrue the fundamental claims of economics."

MO: Democrats squelch democracy: "The backers of two ballot proposals limiting government spending and eminent domain gave up their legal fight Tuesday to get the constitutional amendments on the Nov. 7 ballot. Both initiative petitions had been rejected in May by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who concluded they were not properly organized under state law. Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan upheld that decision in July. Courts also struck down the financial estimates attached to both initiative petitions."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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WHY LIBERALS ARE FASCISTS

By Dr. Jack Wheeler

Doesn't it seem odd that the kids who started the 60s anti-establishment protest riots on college campuses with the Free Speech Movement (Berkeley, 1964) are the college professors or politicians today who most vehemently suppress free speech among their students or constituents in the name of political correctness? How can this be? How can worshipping at the shrines of Diversity, Tolerance, and Multiculturalism result in trials and expulsions for students, or jail for citizens, who express ideas with which the worshippers are not in agreement? The answer is the intimate connection between Subjectivism and Fascism.

The core metaphysical assertion of liberals is that there are no absolute truths, factually or morally. What's true for you may not be true for me, it's all a matter of perspective, who are you to say what is right or wrong, true or false. Truth is a matter of subjective opinion, it is relative to the values of different people. This belief, which lies at the very center of the liberal view of the world, is known as Subjectivism or Relativism. It's opposite, Objectivism, the assertion that there are in fact absolute truths, both moral and factual about the nature of reality regardless of anyone's opinion or desires, horrifies liberals. They think such an assertion leads straight to tyranny and fascism.

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the founder of Fascism as a political movement (after the Latin fasces, the bundle of rods used by Rome to symbolize strength through unity) vehemently disagreed. In his 1921 essay Diuturna (The Lasting, that which endures), Mussolini made it clear that moral relativism was his rationale for Fascism: If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, we Fascists conclude that we have the right to create our own ideology and to enforce it with all the energy of which we are capable.

Liberals follow Mussolini's conclusion to the letter. Preaching tolerance, they have no tolerance for anyone's opinions but their own. Anyone they disagree with they call racist' or sexist' or homophobic' or some other denigration. Liberal intolerance, of course, goes way beyond mere disagreement and name-calling. They want to criminalize the beliefs and actions of those with whom they disagree....

Liberal "tolerance" is forcing people at the point of a gun to believe and act as liberals demand. You don't get more fascist than that. California's Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, is, however, trying. He is actually trying to criminalize disagreement on "global warming." In his lawsuit against such prominent scientists as MIT Professor of Meteorology Richard Lindzen and Harvard astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas, Lockyer accuses them of being "climate skeptics," who are playing "a major role in spreading disinformation about global warming." ...

The only way to combat liberal lunacy like that on exhibit in California is to attack it at its source: liberal subjectivism leading directly to fascism. It will do no good for liberals to bleat about religious absolutists, be they Christian or Moslem, who believe they have a right to force people into behaving as they want because that's what the Bible or the Koran says. That's a red herring. Don't let liberals switch the issue. The issue here is the fundamental contradiction in their world-view, not anyone else's. Liberals cannot argue for relativism in morality and claim there are no moral truths, then claim their moral values magically have more validity than anyone else's.

When you argue there are no objective moral truths, the only way to settle a moral disagreement is at the point of a gun. Mussolini understood this, and he had the intellectual honesty to admit it. Liberals understand it too, but they don't want to admit it, least of all to themselves. It still makes them fascists, nonetheless.

Demonstrating how and why liberals are fascists is their Achilles' Heel. Name-calling is a liberal specialty, and they are fond of calling their opponents "fascists." But using reason and logic to expose how they are demonstrably in fact fascists can be effective. Combat liberalism by publicly exposing it as fascism.

More here

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Brookes News Update

How confusion about the money supply is damaging the US economy: Until mainstream economists adopt Walter Boyd's definition of money and the reality that money is not neutral the US economy will continue to be plagued with recurring recessions
The Liberal Government and its supporters must stop kicking the unemployed: The Liberal Party has failed to understood that the jobless issue is one of compulsory unemployment. The logic of which is that if anyone is under an obligation it is those who get to keep their jobs at the expense of those whose jobs have been destroyed
Money supply and the stock market: is there any relation?: Contrary to various experts who dismiss the importance of money in driving the stock prices we have shown that this dismissal is based on a questionable framework of thinking
French 'justice' vs Cuban 'vengeance': According to the Cuba Archive Project headed by scholars Maria Werlau and Dr Armando Lago the Castro regime - with firing squads, forced-labor camps and drownings at sea - caused an estimated 102,000 Cuban deaths
Americans must confront their axis of idiots and the media: Americans must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. They must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. US soldiers need the American public to confront the enemy that they cannot
How the selfishness of the better-off damages the housing market: There is no disputing the fact that any activity that restricts the supply of land in the face of an unchanged or rising demand for housing must raise rents
Katrina: The political storm that will not die: Democrats are holding on to the hope that the ghost of Katrina will damage President Bush in the November elections
Will the US economy learn from history?: The '90s demonstrated that monetary booms are still highly corrosive of morals and ethical behaviour, a sad fact that is never going to change while men remain as they are. So will the US economy learn from history, meaning its central bankers and economic commentariat?
Under Sharia Law: In Bracks' state of Victoria it is now a felony to quote from the Koran - except, of course, if you are a Islamo-fascist who thinks unbelievers deserve to be beheaded. Fortunately someone is using satire to mock Victoria's Blasphemy Laws and Muslim bigots.
Islamic fanaticism: A resource for Turkish growth and prosperity?: The AK Party is the one Turks fear. It is the one trying to reassign Turkey to fundamentalist Islam. It is working hard at restoring the caliphate. Make no mistake, Turkey is in the midst of a religious war and at the forefront of the line that separates the future from the past
How the media helped Hezbollah terrorists use dead children as anti-Israel props: Islamo-fascists use dead children as props for their propaganda war against Israel - and the media collaborate with them
Why are the Democrats savaging Wal-Mart?: While many Americans are concerned about al Quaida and other terrorist enemies of the US, the Democrats have identified Wal-Mart as the real enemy. How can anyone call these Dems serious people

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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It's fascism -- and it's Islamic

(By Victor Davis Hanson)

George Bush recently declared that we are at war with "Islamic fascism." Muslim-American groups were quick to express furor at the expression. Middle Eastern autocracies complained that it was provocative and insensitive. Critics of the term chosen by the president, however, should remember what al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other extremist Muslim groups have said and done. Like the fascists of the 1930s, the leaders of these groups are authoritarians who brook no dissent in their efforts to impose a comprehensive system of submission upon the unwilling.

Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to kill any American they could find, and then tried to fulfill that vow on Sept. 11. Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah bragged that "the Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them" -- and then started a war. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, promises to "wipe out" Israel, and is seeking the nuclear means to do so.

Sharia law and dreams of pan-Islamic global rule fuel their ambitions. Once again, they seek to fool Western liberals through voicing a litany of perpetual hurts.... Islamic fascism is also anti-democratic and characteristically reactionary. It conjures up a past of Islamic influence that existed before the supposed corruption of modernism. Like Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, who sought to recapture lost mythical Aryan, Roman or samurai purity, so Islamic fascists talk in romantic terms of the ancient caliphate.

Anti-Semitism is a tenet of fascism, then and now. But so is a generic hatred for unbelievers, homosexuals and blacks. The latter are slurred in the Arab media, while homosexuals were rounded up under the Taliban and the Iranian mullacracy. "Mein Kampf" sells well under its translated title "Jihadi." .... Even now, it is hard to distinguish the slurs against Jews ("pigs and apes") used in the Middle Eastern media from the venom of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda. Goose-stepping and stiff-armed salutes at Iranian and Hezbollah parades are conscious imitations of past fascist armies.

Some object that the term "Islamic fascism" is too vague to encompass the differing agendas of diverse groups such as the Wahhabis, al-Qaida and Hezbollah. But just as racist German Nazis found common ground with Asian supremacists in Japan, so too the shared hatred of the West trumps the internecine rivalries of present-day Islamists.

The common denominators are extremist views of the Koran (thus the term Islamic), and the goal of seeing authoritarianism imposed at the state level by force (thus the notion of fascism). The pairing of the two words conveys a precise message: the old fascism is back, but now driven by a radical fundamentalist creed of Islam...

The real problem is not that "Islamic fascism" is inaccurate or mean-spirited, but that this identification earns such vehement disdain in Europe and the United States. That hysteria may tell us as much about the state of a demoralized West as the term itself does about our increasingly emboldened enemies

More here

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ELSEWHERE



How the Church of England preaches the gospel of Christ: "A priest with the Church of England who converted to Hinduism has been allowed to continue to officiate as a cleric. The Rev David Hart's diocese renewed his licence this summer even though he had moved to India, changed his name to Ananda and daily blesses a congregation of Hindus with fire previously offered up to Nagar, the snake god. He also "recites Gayatri Mantram with the same devotion with which he celebrates the Eucharist", according to The Hindu, India's national newspaper. The Hindu this week pictures him offering prayers to an idol of the elephant god Ganesh in front of his house. However, he still believes he is fit to celebrate as an Anglican priest and plans to do so when he returns to Britain.... "My philosophical position is that all religions are cultural constructs," he said"

Whiners get a reply: "President Bush in the White House East Room Wednesday explained for the first time in detail the importance of interrogation as an intelligence tool in the war on terror. He conceded that some of the techniques used against the likes of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were "tough." But he also used his remarks to declassify a fair bit of information about what's been learned. Quite clearly the interrogations are a major reason there have been no further terrorist attacks on American soil in the past five years. The demagogues alleging senseless "torture" at "secret" overseas prisons have now gotten a proper reply. Like the programs for monitoring bank transfers and warrantless wiretaps overseas, interrogating those who would do us harm has helped keep the country safe with minimal intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans" [Taranto has some good excerpts from the Bush speech]

Americans like Wal-Mart better than unions: "Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Americans have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of labor unions while 33% disagree and have an unfavorable view. Those figures, from a Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults, include 23% with a "very favorable" opinion and 12% with a "very unfavorable" view. By way of comparison, 69% of Americans have a favorable opinion of a company the unions love to hate-Walmart. Twenty-nine percent (29%) have an unfavorable opinion of the retail giant".

Got to admit it's getting better ...: "The basic message Greenhouse and Leonhardt deliver is that 'wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960's.' That is literally correct, according to the federal government's measures. But it's also misleading, for two main reasons, in order of importance. First, as marginal tax rates have increased for most people except the highest-income people, due mainly to rising Medicare and Social Security tax rates over the last 40 years, employers have paid a higher and higher percent of compensation in the form of untaxed benefits. So a more-relevant measure is not wages and salaries but total employee compensation. Second, national income is a better base to use for considering each group's -- employees, corporations, proprietors, landlords, and lenders -- share of income"

Prop 87: Paying at the pump and misdirecting innovation: "Californians pay an average of more than $3.20 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Many consumers are agitated because prices have increased more than a dollar per gallon since the beginning of the year. British Petroleum's Alaskan shutdown has only increased concerns. Unfortunately, if passed, Proposition 87, the Clean Alternative Energy Act (CAEA), would only make matters worse. The Act would increase gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil, while creating a vast new bureaucracy that is unlikely to speed the successful development of alternative fuels."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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ISLAM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH WESTERN CIVILIZATION

Some excerpts below from a talk by eminent Australian, John Stone:

We need to understand that the core of the Muslim problem-for the world, not merely for Australia-lies in the essence of Islam itself. It is the problem of a culture that, for the past 500 years or so at least, has failed its adherents as its inward-looking theocracy has resulted in it falling further and further behind the West. It is that sense of cultural failure, that sense of smouldering resentment that fuels the fires so busily stoked by the more extremist Muslim teachers. Fiercely exclusive rather than inclusive, Islam holds that church and state are inseparable; that women, while respected so long as they stick to their appointed place in the Islamic scheme of things, are less than equal to men generally; and that even the most extreme violence is justifiable when applied in pursuit of approved Islamic ends. Until all that changes-and it can only be changed from within Islam itself, if indeed it can be changed at all-the Islamic culture will never reside in harmony with others.

This is where all those comfortable (one might even call them "lazy") assumptions about our own Muslim community break down. Contrary to those assumptions, I do not believe that this latest body of newcomers amongst us will emulate the examples of their predecessors from Italy, Greece, Poland, the Baltic states, or more recently Vietnam, Hong Kong and China. How can it be possible for them to become part of a united Australia, when any Muslim woman who wishes to "marry out" risks not merely social and familial ostracism, but outright violence, even death by way of "honour killings", by her father or her brothers? Almost without exception, the only marriages occurring in Australia today between Muslims and non-Muslims involve conversion to Islam of the latter.

The high priests and priestesses of multiculturalism should not be surprised by this. It is after all a product-admittedly, an extreme one-of policies they have been espousing with such religious zeal for thirty years or more....

Academics, and timid politicians seeking excuses for their inactivity in addressing the Muslim problem, may therefore continue to dance on the points of philosophical needles about those supposed differences between "moderate" Islam and "extremist" Islam. And it is true that it often seems as though there are as many hostilities between different Islamic sects-the Shia and the Sunnis, to name only the most topical example-as there are between Islam and non-Islam. Nevertheless, as Father Paul Stenhouse has reminded us in a typically scholarly but also extremely pointed article in the March issue of Quadrant, all followers of Islam, "moderate" or otherwise, divide the world into two areas: the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-Harb. The former, the house of submission, is that part of the world where Islamic governments and Islamic law prevail: the latter, the house of war, is the rest of the world. Australia, to all Muslims, is part of the house of war.

In May this year Quadrant printed a thoughtful paper by Cardinal George Pell arising from his recent study of the Koran. He distils a clear distinction between the revelations Mohammed claimed to receive (via the Archangel Gabriel) while in Mecca, and those which followed his later move to Medina. During the former period he was "without military power" and was still seeking to convert the non-believers by way of proselytising. During the latter period, proselytising had given way to the ravages of the sword. In Pell's words, "the spread of Islam through conquest and conversion began".

Cardinal Pell notes that those passages from the Koran that are often quoted by those seeking to show the "moderate" nature of Islam are all drawn from the earlier period, whereas the Koran of Medina is replete with the most blood-curdling injunctions to kill all infidels wherever they are found. As Pell notes, just as in our own legal system a later law overrides any earlier one to the extent of any inconsistency between them, so it may not be unreasonable to assume that the Koran of Medina overrides the Koran of Mecca where any inconsistencies are concerned. That is indeed the view taken by the scholars of fundamentalist Islam.

There is another point relevant to this debate about "moderate" versus "extreme" Islam-namely, the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya. This has been the subject of two most interesting articles in National Observer in 2005 by Andrew Campbell. Without going into detail, taqiyya is the doctrine whereby any lies, deceit, or other forms of treachery may be justified in the cause of defeating the infidel. It is "a cloak for the believer" that provides a religious dispensation for such things as "friendship with unbelievers" and other subterfuges "in defending oneself from one's enemies". I suggest that, when one reads the soothing words of our own Islamic "moderates", the doctrine of taqqiya should never be far from our minds.

It is clear that, in Muslim countries throughout the world, the forces of extremism are winning the battle within Islam. (Of course, the usual apologists would undoubtedly argue that that is all our fault because of such things as our support for the continued existence of Israel, or the US-led coalition's invasion of Iraq; but let that pass.) In many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, those forces today are held back and driven underground by the present regime's security apparatus; but then, the same was true of the Shah's Iran until 1979....

More generally, and while I am open to correction, I believe the evidence is incontrovertible that Islamic and Western cultures are today, within any single polity, incompatible. Certainly, I know of no example that can be cited to the contrary.

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ELSEWHERE

Growing antisemitism in Britain now recognized: "A sinister alliance has developed between far-Right groups and Islamist extremists who are united in their hatred of Jews, Israel and Zionism and are contributing to increasing anti-Semitism in Britain. A report criticises police forces for failing adequately to monitor anti-Jewish incidents. It calls on the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate why fewer than one in ten reported incidents leads to a prosecution. The report was published after The Times revealed that conflict in the Middle East had led to a surge in anti-Semitism. It says that Britain’s 300,000 Jews are “more anxious and more vulnerable to abuse and attack than at any other time for a generation or longer”. It refers to “anti-Semitic discourse”, defined as a “widespread change in mood and tone when Jews are discussed, whether in print or broadcast, at universities, or in public or social settings”. But it expresses particular concern about a new, “symbiotic” relationship between the traditional perpetrators of anti-Semitism — the far Right and some Islamist extremists — who are united in their hatred of all things Jewish... Of particular concern to the inquiry was anti-Semitism on campuses, with literature being distributed that called for the killing of Jews and the destruction of Israel."

The fallacy of open immigration: "Nothing is more common than for well-intentioned people to believe that if everybody just does what is right (as they see it), nothing but good can possibly result. Libertarians have always been skeptical about that assumption. They know, for example, that wars have always been fought for causes believed to be right. The vast fabric of the modern welfare state was created to ensure proper care for the poor and needy. Yet very terrible things have resulted from the impulse to assert the right through warfare and to create the right through social engineering. This, more than anything else, has caused thinking men and women to look for ways of limiting, rather than increasing, the power of the state and, with it, the bad effects of good intentions. But libertarians themselves have not always succeeded in resisting the allure of good intentions, the assumption that there will be no unfortunate consequences of our good ideas."

Happy Labor Day: We're all workers! "Marx, of course, was wrong and the implications of Labor Day were wrong as well. There is not a separate class of individuals called 'worker' who are opposed to other economic classes. To begin with, without entrepreneurs, investors, managers and, in general, capitalists, workers would have no factories in which to work or those factories would be as inefficient as those in the Soviet Union and the workers as poor as those under communism. Entrepreneurs, investors, managers and capitalists are all workers. Further, as the great Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises pointed out, economic roles are artificial."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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"STOMP ISRAEL LIKE A BUG" (!)

Nazism is definitely back. And, just like last time, it is Leftist. Below is a comment by Steve Frank on a post by Taranto covering some of the gibberings appearing on the website of the influential "MoveOn" organization within the American Left

"Finally!!! It is no longer the Jews that cause all the problems in the Middle East. No, it is those crazy Christian Zionists!!! Just ask the supporters of MoveOn.org

Bigotry and hatred runs rampant among the supporters of MoveOn.org. The leadership could denounce it, stop it, but they don't. When you read the MoveOn blogs and article, you would think the Ku Klux Klan became socialists and instead of white sheets, they wear the look of fear and hatred. Of course what they really dislike is Freedom--that works against their worldview. If people can make decisions for themselves, then government won't be needed. But, if you believe people are too stupid to govern themselves, then MoveOn is the place for you. Nothing people eat, drink, learn, say, believe is good enough--only government can shine the light on "Truth".

When you read the pages of MoveOn you see that all the worlds problems start with the Middle East and US foreign policy in support of Israel. I had always thought that the United Nations certified the creation of the State of Israel, but we now know, according to MoveOn supporters that Christian Zionists conspired to create a State just for the purpose of stealing oil. Yet in the almost 60 years of the State of Israel, the US has yet to steal a drop of oil. We even give foreign aid (bribe money) to Egypt, Lebanon and other trouble spots controlled by terrorist groups. Just a reminder of history: When Israel was certified as a State, Jordan offered to take in all the Palestinian Arabs--yet the leadership decided it was better to live in poverty and war, than get an education and success. It was the choice of the forerunners of Hamas and Hezbollah to force the Muslim population in the Middle East to become a warrior class.

Now, the new scapegoats are the Christians, never the terrorists. In fact, the whole question of the Middle East to the Left is a cover for their latent anti-Semitism. Remember the father of modern liberalism, Franklin Roosevelt, refused to allow Jews to come into this country from Germany and the rest of Europe. Roosevelt, though he knew about the Holocaust, he said nothing, did nothing, and cared very little. So, the fact that his philosophical grandchildren don't like Jews and the Christians that support them, is no surprise. Just listen to the words of Kerry, Clinton, Kerry, Schumer, and the others. It is Israel and US foreign policy, not terrorists, that are the problem. If only Israel would give up more land and give up their weapons, the crisis would be averted. This is terrorism, in the name of anti-Semitism, with a compassionate heart. Phooey, these are bigots in the old KKK style. The sooner we admit it, the sooner we can solve the problem.

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ELSEWHERE



A joyous day for Japan: "Princess Kiko of Japan gave birth this morning to the country's future emperor, defusing the imperial succession crisis and provoking celebration across the country. Commuters travelling to work were handed special editions put our by all the major Japanese newspapers after the princess gave birth to a 2.55kg (5lb 10oz) baby boy by Caesarean section at 8.27am Japanese time. The baby prince, who has not yet been named, is expected to be the 128th Emperor of Japan after his grandfather, Emperor Akihito, his uncle Crown Prince Naruhito, and his father, Prince Akishino. There had been unprecedented speculation over the gender of the child, who is the first male to be born into the family for nearly 41 years. The lack of a male heir threatened the long-term extinction of the world's oldest monarchy. Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Masako, have a four-year old daughter, Aiko, but under law women are not eligible to take the throne."

National identities reviving: "Far from softening, national and other local identities are hardening again, reverting to ever-narrower blood-and-language relationships that Europe's dreamers assumed would fade away. Who now sees himself as fundamentally Belgian, rather than as a Fleming or Walloon? Catalans deny that they are Spaniards, and the Welsh imagine a national grandeur for themselves. In the last decade, the ineradicable local identities within the former Yugoslavia split apart in a bloodbath, while a mortified Europe looked away for as long as it could. The Yugoslav disaster was written off as an echo from the past--anyway, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and Kosovars were "not our kind"--but the Balkan wars instead signaled a much broader popular discontent with pseudo-identities concocted by political elites. The collapse of Yugoslavia hinted at the future of Europe: not necessarily the bloodshed, but the tenacity of historical identity."

Has NASA learnt nothing from the shuttle?: "NASA on Thursday gave a multibillion-dollar contract to build a manned lunar spaceship to Lockheed Martin Corp., the aerospace leader that usually builds unmanned rockets. The nation's space agency plans to use the Orion crew exploration vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet, take astronauts to the moon and perhaps to Mars. Unlike Apollo and earlier spacecraft perched atop rockets, it will be reusable. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019 for likely eight separate spaceships."

Progress in Sweden? "One of the longest-serving leaders in Europe is facing a young challenger from the resurgent Right who has transformed his party's appeal, particularly to first-time voters. Goran Persson's ten-year grip on power in Sweden is being threatened by Fredrik Reinfeldt, who has ditched his tie along with a raft of right-wing policies, adopted a modern pale blue logo and spoken at a gay pride event.... Mr Reinfeldt's core appeal is based on lowering high income tax and using benefit cuts to invest in what he calls real jobs as opposed to the Social Democrats' training schemes. Mr Persson is pushing green policies and promising more of the high-tax policies that support the so-called Swedish Model, which is widely cited as the most successful and generous social system of childcare, schools, healthcare and public transport in Europe. But, unlike his predecessors on the Right, Mr Reinfeldt is not talking of dismantling it. "In the 1970s there was a clear difference of ideology, with real socialism standing against a market economy," he said. "But it is a new kind of world now and the ideology from the past is not really valid. We are not asking for a mandate to tear anything down. "We are asking for support for job-creation policies and to focus more on results from the school and healthcare system."

Progress in France? "The battle to be the next French President heated up yesterday when Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right favourite, set out his manifesto for a revolution to restore basic values that would win the confidence of a younger generation that distrusts him. M Sarkozy, 51, the Interior Minister and leader of the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP), President Chirac's party, blamed the Sixties generation for squandering France's heritage and creating a sense of entitlement and despair among the young. He would, he promised, create a new, better-educated France of hard workers and entrepreneurs."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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