You Shall Have No Gods Before Envy

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. --Winston Churchill

If you are a true leftist, then you shall covet. Your life is built around a chronic feeling of lack for which you imagine that others are responsible. Unlike some of the other commandments, which at least rouse the person into action -- however evil the action -- envy is entirely passive and internal, and can be done from the discomfort of your own head. While it can become active, it is generally powerless unless it embodies a pathological cultural value system or is translated into a collective political movement. Absent the collective will of envy, it can only ruin your own life.

Why is the commandment to envy so central to the nihilistic left? Lying, stealing, murdering and adultery all harm others, but envy seems only to affect oneself. True, it is absolutely corrosive to the self, but why should it be among the five horizontal commandments governing man-to-man relations?

Because envy is not just an emotion, or mental state. Rather, it is a relationship. It is a relationship with an other whom one feels possesses something lacking in oneself. It is actually first an internal object relationship, only projected outward. In other words, there is an envious mind parasite in dynamic rapport with a frustrating object it feels is "withholding" that to which it feels entitled -- ultimately it is a frustrated infant imagining a bountiful breast that is selfishly keeping its infinite supply of milk and other goodies to itself. Therefore, it will either seize the breast or attack it so that no one else can have it. At various times leftists can adopt either strategy toward the breast, which they call their "economic policy."

Now importantly, the leftist necessarily operates in an "insight free" zone, so he naturally focuses on the object of envy, and in fact, builds his entire worldview around feeling enviously entitled to the object he lacks.

The above is just a small excerpt from Gagdad Bob

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ELSEWHERE



Saudi Arabia's jihadi chickens come home to roost: "For decades, Saudi Arabia's ruling family has lent political and financial support to the country's most fanatical Muslim clergy. The clergy received money to infest the world with their vision of violent jihad; the Al Sauds received religious support for their claims to absolute power. It has been a good marriage - but now the jihadi chickens have come home to roost. Last week, the Saudi government rounded up 172 men on charges of plotting to assassinate public figures, blow up oil refineries, and fly airplanes into buildings. Quite a few of them turned out to be veterans of jihad in Iraq, where the same Saudi government had sent them to kill Shiite Muslims. Another 136 Saudis were arrested in a similar sweep six months ago, and more will follow. Though the Saudi government calls them "deviants" today, the royal family used a more complimentary term when encouraging them to kill Shiites in Iraq, Russians in Afghanistan and Chechnya, Serbs in Bosnia, and Christians and Jews in Israel and the West: "heroes of the jihad."



Sarko ahead: "French conservative Nicolas Sarkozy extended his lead after a television debate with Socialist rival Segolene Royal and stayed on course for victory in Sunday's election, opinion polls showed on Thursday. A poll for the Opinionway institute showed 53 per cent of viewers found Sarkozy more convincing during the sometimes fiery debate, against 31 per cent who judged Royal better. A separate survey by the same polling organisation gave Sarkozy, who has come out on top in over 100 opinion polls since the start of the year, an eight point lead with 54 per cent support, versus 46 per cent for Royal. But with just over two days left until voting begins on Sunday morning, neither candidate relented. Both were back on the campaign trail on Thursday evening, with Sarkozy hammering his favourite themes of security and pride in being French."

Political balance pays off for NYC Murdoch paper: "Led by its Australian editor-in-chief Col Allan, The New York Post has again defied the continuing slide in US newspaper sales by posting a big 7.6 per cent jump in weekday circulation. Daily sales of the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid climbed to 724,748 copies for the six months to March 31, confirming its position as America's fifth biggest newspaper and stretching its circulation lead in New York over arch-rival The Daily News. The Post's performance was at odds with the overall 2.1 per cent decline in weekday newspaper circulation across the US reported by the US Audit Bureau of Circulations... But there's no denying that traditional newspapers are doing it tough. The worst circulation performers among the top 20 US newspapers yesterday came from the fourth-ranked Los Angeles Times (down 4.2 per cent), 11th-ranked Dallas Morning News (down 14.2 per cent), 12th-ranked Newsday (down 6.9 per cent), the 15th-ranked Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey (down 6.1 per cent) and the 18th-ranked Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St Paul (down 4.9 per cent). The nations's top three papers had mixed results, with USA Today up 0.2 per cent, The Wall Street Journal up 0.6 per cent and The New York Times down 1.9 per cent. The Times also dropped 3.4 per cent to 1,627,062 copies on Sundays."

Englishman's castle no longer exists: "The state now has 266 powers to draw upon when its agents want to enter homes, according to research. A report from the Centre for Policy Studies says that an Englishman's home is less his castle and more "a right of way'' for police, local government officials and other bureaucrats. In the 1950s just 10 new powers of entry were granted by statute. In the 1980s and 1990s an extra 60 were added. For the first time, Harry Snook, a barrister and the author of the study, Crossing the Threshold, has drawn together the full list of entry powers in the state's possession. Force can be used in most cases. The research comes at a time of heightened concern over the lengthening arm of the state, with ID cards around the corner and more sophisticated surveillance equipment being used to watch people. One of the most powerful bodies is HM Revenue and Customs whose officers can exercise a "writ of assistance" with almost unlimited rights of access. Its holders can break into any private house to seize any goods which the customs officers believes are liable to be forfeit without seeking prior judicial approval."

Belgians find they need Google: "Belgian French-language newspapers were back on Google on Thursday after agreeing that the search engine can link to their websites, the first signs of a thaw in a bitter copyright dispute. But neither has so far settled on a key part of the dispute: the use of newspaper story links used on Google News. In February, Google lost a lawsuit filed by the newspapers that forced it to remove headlines and links to news stories posted on its Google News service and stored in its search engine's cache without the copyright owners' permission. Google had earlier removed all reference to the newspapers to avoid legal trouble, meaning that a search for even the name of Belgian daily "Le Soir" would not bring up the publication's website. But searchers will now find that paper and 16 others - although they will not be able to access stored versions of older content that the newspapers want to charge for. It is similar to the system used by The New York Times and others for premium content that marks stories with a "no archive" tag so it won't be cached."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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MORONIC U.S. ARMY BRASS

Army leadership is a byword for stupidity and bungling but this is REAL foot-shooting. As Atlas says: "The military is going to leave all of the war reporting to the jihad-loving mainstream media? We're screwed for sure!"

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.

The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update. "This is the final nail in the coffin for combat blogging," said retired paratrooper Matthew Burden, editor of The Blog of War anthology. "No more military bloggers writing about their experiences in the combat zone. This is the best PR the military has -- it's most honest voice out of the war zone. And it's being silenced."

Source. Some good comments here. And note how the Australian situation differs. The Australian army chief gave the censors a good kick. He WANTED to hear what his troops were saying.

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Brookes News Update

The US dollar and China's impending recession, part II: It is vitally important to understand that China is undergoing a massive inflation-driven boom. Like all such booms it is being funded by credit expansion. Further, trade with China does not determine the value of the dollar or US interest rates
Does inflation promote economic growth or does it damage it?: Mainstream economics views inflation as general rises in commonly accepted price indices. It is held that the rate of growth in economic activity is a key factor in determining the rate of increases in price indices. This is dangerous nonsense
The Australian economy: the case for free trade restated: One does not need a complicated theory to make the case for free trade. As Adam Smith observed, it is much better for people to produce those goods in which they have a cost advantage and then trade them for goods in which they have a cost disadvantage
Defending capitalism against Lynda Newnam: Charles Murton defends capitalism against one of its critics
Prodos: The Liberal Party and Australia: Liberal Party member Prodos Marinakis presents his case
Harry Reid should resign.but he won't: Most Americans are appalled at Harry Reid's declaration of American defeat in Iraq. Reid's actions are tantamount to treason. If the Democrat Party was genuinely patriotic it would force Reid to step down instead of trying spin his treason
Cho was a terrorist! Did leftists teach him to hate: What's the difference between Cho Seung-Hui and the many hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian and Islamic terrorists worldwide? It's a three-word answer: choice of weapon. Everything else is the same

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ELSEWHERE

There is here a fabulous collection of postcards that were created 100 years ago in an attempt to prophesy what our present would be like. Only one of them (about TV) is roughly right.

9/11 Conspiracy Film on Virgin Airlines: "This qualifies as one of the outrages of the year: Virgin Atlantic Airlines is showing the evil, dishonest 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change as inflight entertainment. Are these people insane? Maybe next they can have a retrospective of the works of Leni Riefenstahl."

There is a big post here about the appalling ignorance of Presidential candidate John Edwards.

World Bank hypocrisy: "Ms. Riza was eventually given an external assignment at the State Department with a salary (paid by the bank) of $193,000, up from the $133,000 she had previously made at the bank. To Mr. Wolfowitz's critics, this was improper and excessive, especially given that Condoleezza Rice makes about $10,000 less. But this is highly selective outrage given normal procedure at the bank. Of its roughly 10,000 employees, no fewer than 1,396 have salaries higher than the U.S. Secretary of State; clearly "fighting poverty" does not mean taking a vow of poverty at "multilateral" institutions. At the time of Ms. Riza's departure from the bank, she was a Grade "G" (senior professional) employee; the typical salary in that grade hovers around the $124,000 mark. For the next level, Grade "H"--the level to which Ms. Riza was due to be promoted--salaries average in the $170,000 range, with an upper band of $232,360. No fewer than 17% of bank employees are in this happy bracket." [More about World Bank corruption here]

Media Israel-hatred: "Here's yet another instance of what I like to call "selective" truth:-We're presented initially, via our intrepid (by which I mean "totally uninquisitive") photographers, with news that a man was found dead, shot somewhere in the Gaza Strip. This, as far as anyone can tell, is true. Cue: crocodile tears. We're also told, via captional inference, that the Israelis are being blamed for this shooting. Hello, conjecture. Finally, we're told that, according to Israeli records, no soldiers were in the area at the time. Enter, truth. This type of thing happens far more often than you'd ever think, yet time and time again, the press falls for the immediate blame-da-JEWSism spewed at them by the hostile locals and repeats the claims unquestioned. And time and time again, when the facts come in, the inital storyline is almost always shown to be false."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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GERMANY REDISCOVERS THE US AS A PARTNER

An interesting development recorded in the excerpt from the German press below. Angela probably has her heart in the right place. She grew up in the Communist East so would have few illusions about socialism. She does however head a nation that is the home of socialism -- from Bismarck, through Marx to Hitler -- so her options are limited

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reoriented Germany away from Russia and toward the United States. Expanded economic ties are just one area of renewed cooperation...

The gift brought by a guest says a lot about his or her intentions. The love-sick romantic shows up with a dozen red roses. A box of Cohiba cigars is the classic gift between men in the West. Purebred horses and trained falcons, on the other hand, are the gift of choice among men in the Arab world. When German chancellors travel, their hosts usually receive the best Meissen porcelain, Junghans clocks or cases of Riesling wine.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel will present an especially generous gift during her trip to the United States this week. At a Monday ceremony in the Great Hall of the US Library of Congress, she will hand over to the Americans something Germans would normally be barred from even taking out of the country: a piece of Germany's national cultural heritage. The item in question is a world map drafted by Freiburg native Martin Waldseemller in 1507. It is a map which shows a rough outline of the new continent, and for the first time uses a name that the immigrants in the New World would eventually adopt for their own: America.

The actual transfer of the map from Merkel to Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Majority Leader in the US House of Representatives, is more of a symbolic act; the historic chart has been in the United States since 2001. But when it was first sent to the United States six years ago, then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder did little more than shepherd the gift through the bureaucratic intricacies of getting an exit permit. Now, the current chancellor prefers to celebrate the act with fanfare, staging it as a gesture designed to underscore Germany's close friendship with America.

For Merkel, though, the closeness with the US is much more than mere symbolism. She sees America as "a force that has brought freedom to the peoples of the world." She now plans to make the most of that freedom by further strengthening the two countries' economic ties. In the storm of globalization, the United States and Europe plan to expand their cooperation to benefit both countries.

It is virtually unprecedented in German history for a chancellor to be so unreservedly aligned with the US. Adenauer, the first chancellor of West Germany, saw America as a guarantor of freedom, but also perceived it as an occupation force. Helmut Schmidt and Willy Brandt, both Social Democratic (SPD) chancellors, were pro-American but innately skeptical. Merkel, on the contrary, wants to expand Germany's close ties with the United States and is on the verge of making a pact with America the cornerstone of her foreign policy. Indeed, the resoluteness with which she has pursued this goal stands in conspicuous contrast with her government's lack of political progress back home in Germany.

More here

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ELSEWHERE



Some public antisemitism from San Francisco Leftist demonstrators above -- courtesy of Zombietime



The stupid Brits deserve this guy: "One of Britain's most infamous Islamist extremists is seeking three more wives through the internet. Omar Brooks, who described the 7/7 suicide bombers as "completely praiseworthy" and heckled Home Secretary John Reid in a high-profile confrontation last week, has signed up to a Muslim marriage website. Although already married with three children and reportedly living off 700 pounds a month in state benefits, the 31-year-old is seeking more wives, with the intention of fathering more than nine children."

There are incredible human rights violations going on throughout the Islamic word. So who is the Soros-funded Human Rights Watch monitoring? Wal-Mart! "A human-rights group released a critical report on Wal-Mart Stores Inc., alleging the retailer used security cameras to spy on union sympathizers and planted supervisors alongside pro-union workers to monitor activities, among other actions that violated federal labor laws. The 210-page report by Human Rights Watch is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the company's actions during union organizing drives, according to labor professors. It examines dozens of drives at a U.S. Wal-Mart store between 2000 and 2005 and cites 15 decisions" [More commentary here]

Slap on the wrist for fatally negligent British cops: "Two police officers have been disciplined for "unacceptable failings" after they failed to arrest a man who went on to commit murder. Paul Cooper, 42, complained to Greater Manchester Police in March 2005 that he had been attacked several times by Neil Read, who had mistakenly thought him to be a paedophile. At the end of an "horrendous campaign of violence", Read murdered Mr Cooper. Read, of Heywood, Greater Manchester, was convicted and ordered to be detained at Ashworth Hospital, Merseyside. The case was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which recommended that the two officers should receive formal written warnings. Naseem Malik, IPCC Commissioner for the North West, said: "It is clear that there were unacceptable failings by those officers once the suspect was identified, which meant clear opportunities to facilitate Read's arrest were missed."

A Dutchman with sense: "Freedom Party PVV faction leader Geert Wilders is arguing that all Islamic schools in the Netherlands should be shut down immediately. He says this measure is necessary in order to "protect children against the spread of Islamic doctrine." ... "Islam is rapidly pushing our Western civilisation close to the edge of the abyss. We have too much Islam in the Netherlands. Islam is more a violent political ideology than a religion," the MP writes. He admits that he has taken a strong position in the debate on Islam. That is necessary, he says, because it is "the eleventh hour."

"Kill All Americans": "To the very last one". The Jerusalem Post reports that the acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, gave a sermon at a Sudanese mosque calling for the annihilation of America and Israel asked Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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The overrated Palestinian "cause"

Aaron David Miller writes another story touting the supposed importance of a Middle East "peace" agreement, and makes the factual error of asserting that the Bush administration has "for almost seven years, the Bush administration has hung a 'Closed for the Season' sign on serious Arab-Israeli diplomacy."

He must have a short memory. When former Gen. Anthony Zinni was the "peace" envoy every trip was greeted by multiple exploding Palestinians doing their worst to prevent any hope of such an agreement. Hamas was turning its children into ordnance to prevent such an agreement, and the Palestinians were celebrating this homicidal nonsense.

He can talk about weak leaders on both sides, but at its heart the reason there is no agreement is because the Palestinians have nothing of value to offer the Israelis. No one ever focuses on this reality. In fact people like Miller adopt the fiction that the Palestinians actually have the ability to offer peace when it is blatantly obvious they could not even if they had a government that wanted to. This is not the fault of the Israelis either.

The Palestinians have the equivalent of war lords who operate several factions whose main purpose is a genocidal war against Israel. There is no effective control over these factions nor is their any desire to control them. The so called leadership finds them convenient to prosecute an informal war while pretending to seek peace in order to get funds from the US and Europe. If the Palestinians had a leader who did want to make peace with Israel, he would be murdered by one or more of these groups......

More here

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In preparation for an event that may possibly happen

I got the post below from Norm Geras. For an expert on Marx, Norm is a rather jocular soul. The point he makes below is a fun one but it assumes that you can read Italian. Being a bit of a language freak, I can (sort of) do that but very few denizens of the Anglosphere could. Assuming that readers have command of various foreign languages (from Greek to French) is an old trick of Britain's educated elite that I rather miss. Why? Because educational standards have so declined that younger writers would simply be unable to play that little one-upmanship game. The Italian below translates literally as "Ring only in case of necessity". Because I read the Italian first and thus understood what was intended, I did not get the point of Norm's post straight away but I eventually got it

Sign beneath a bell in a public lavatory at a tourist site in Florence:

Sonare solo in caso di necessita.

Underneath it, this English translation:

Please ring just in case of emergency

Which isn't quite the same thing, is it? Though 'just' can often be substituted for 'only', the substitution doesn't work for 'only in case'.

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ELSEWHERE

Light bulbs that don't signify ideas: "Everything's difficult, isn't it? In the Democratic presidential candidates' debate, Sen. Barack Obama was asked what he personally was doing to save the environment, and replied that his family was "working on" changing their light bulbs. Is this the new version of the old joke? How many senators does it take to "work on" changing a light bulb? One to propose a bipartisan commission. One to threaten to de-fund the light bulbs. One to demand the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for keeping us all in the dark. One to vote to pull out the first of the light bulbs by fall of this year with a view to getting them all pulled out by the end of 2008."

French self-hate: "The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them, according to an opinion poll published on Friday. The survey of six nations, carried out for the International Herald Tribune daily and France 24 TV station, said 44 percent of French people thought badly of themselves against 38 percent of U.S. respondents who had a negative view of the French."

All Your Toilets Are Belong To Us: "I'm not sure of whether I should laugh or cry when I read recently how the Kansas City International Airport has decided to install "foot basins" in the restrooms at the airport to accomodate growing number of Muslim cab drivers at the airport. I suppose I wanted to laugh because in in all my years throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, I have never seen these so-called "foot basins" installed in a toilet for Muslims to wash their feet. If they need to wash their feet, then they need to go do that at a mosque and not in an airport toilet. What made me feel like crying was the fact that these naive Americans are diving headlong into appeasement without coming to the realization that this now steady flow of "demands" will not ever cease."

Hizbullah won propaganda war: "Hizbullah won the Second Lebanon War by achieving a propaganda victory over Israel, a Harvard University study has concluded. Aided and abetted by a compliant and credulous press, Hizbullah achieved victory by convincing the world that Israel was the aggressor and that Israel's retaliatory offensive was a "disproportionate" response to the kidnapping and killing of its soldiers. Israel's defeat came not at the hands of Hizbullah, however, but through the internal contradictions of being the region's sole functioning democracy in the Internet age. "An open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness," Marvin Kalb and Dr. Carol Saivetz of the Shorenstein Center of Harvard University concluded in their research paper, "The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict."

Leftists help the poor? "Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez’s appears to be free to continue subverting democracy in his country; oil revenues are insulating his regime from the consequences of its economic mismanagement. Venezuela has dropped by two on the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report’s list of poorest nations, with over 2 million of the country’s 25 million people live on a daily income of US$1.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Brain differences in IQ

I suppose I rattle on rather a lot about IQ but the Left are so determined to ignore it that I feel a need to give countervailing attention to it. And as a much-published psychometrician myself I am in a good position to do so.

What no Leftist seems to want to believe is that IQ has a physical basis -- that smart people are born with better brains and there is not much you can do about it. Leftists hate that story because to them all the ills of society are due to things like "poverty" and it is only the deeds of a few evil people at the top who keep poor people in poverty. That a lot of poverty is due to the foolish decisions of the poor people concerned just cannot be allowed.

Anyway, there are quite a lot of brain differences that correlate with IQ but most of them require complicated instrumentation to detect. There is one, however, that can be examined very easily by anyone -- head size. People with bigger heads TEND (there are exceptions) to be smarter. The more grey matter you have, the smarter you are. Not really surprising but still anathema to the Left.

There is a research paper here which estimates that in the general population brain size (not quite the same as head size but closely related) correlates .50 with general intelligence. A correlation of .50 is quite huge in almost any study of human beings. Medical researchers would kill for a correlation like that. And the research was carried out by Phil Vernon -- one of the grand old men of psychometrics. And it was reported in one of the most widely cited journals in psychology. So even Leftists would find that hard to piss on. But the fact that Vernon studies such subjects at all makes him a "Fascist", of course.

Incidentally, autistic people, who very often have great mental abilities combined with poor social skills, also tend to have big heads and autism is an absolute plague in Silicon Valley, where you have to be REALLY smart to get anywhere. Anybody who has tried coding in "C" will know that. So it seems that, as with so many other things, you can overdo brain size too. When big-brained people in Silicon Valley mate they tend to have kids with even bigger brains and the result is a disaster. What seems to happen, as far as I can see, is that an extra large cerebral cortex firing into the rest of the brain overloads important centres in the rest of the brain. So the withdrawal that is typical of autistics is in fact an attempt to reduce stimulation that is already too great.

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A unitary Iraq is a hopeless proposition

It’s about UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the so-called “International Compact” he intends to co-launch with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki in Eygpt on Thursday. It has a lot of admirable words about the fundamental democratic rights of all Iraqi citizens, national reconciliation and the need to ensure the optimal use of the country’s resources for the common good. Noble stuff indeed; all very nice and civilised. But it’s when you get to the underlying philosophy that you realise what a load of flawed and tokenistic rubbish it really is. The plan is rooted in al-Maliki’s determination that Iraq be one united country despite the dreadful and unrelenting sectarian violence that is showing no sign of abating. In other words, it holds that Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again and that’s what the world should be working towards.

Why is the UN lending its efforts to this foolishness? Surely the time has come for the international community to dump the idea of One Iraq and start working towards partitioning the country so the killing can stop. A compelling case for the UN to adopt just such an approach was made in one of its own reports released just last week. The 11th quarterly report of the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq illuminated in graphic detail just how bad things have become.

As the UNAMI report says, the rising levels of violence, terrorist attacks and sectarian conflict are “increasingly acquiring a self-sustaining dynamic that could overwhelm the country’s fragile political processes and institutions”. If that’s not a powerful argument for partition I don’t know what is. If partition can stop people being murdered on a daily basis and ensure that kids get a decent feed and go to school, then why not? Why is the idea of One Iraq more important than that?

It means the UN should stop wasting its time trying to put all those pieces of Humpty Dumpty together and instead it should be working with the various stakeholders on the best ways to achieve two things - a peaceful partition as soon as possible and a fair and equitable means of dividing and distributing Iraq’s oil revenues after that is achieved. So far there are candidates in the US presidential race advocating the partition approach - Democrats Joe Biden and Bill Richardson and Republican Sam Brownback. There are bound to be more in the coming months.

More here (I hope Riehl World will not flay me for putting up this excerpt. He gets pretty heavy with any conservative bloggers who depart from current U.S. policy. I've got a thick hide, though and I have always thought that partition was the only way to go in Iraq. I even supported the sadly forgotten Biafra way back when).

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TV debate last chance for desperate Segolene: "Segolene Royal, the left-wing finalist for the French presidency, has appeared to acknowledge that she needed a near-miracle from a debate on Wednesday to save her from defeat next Sunday by the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy. As opinion polls showed Mr Sarkozy maintaining a five-point lead over the 53-year-old Socialist, Ms Royal threw caution to the winds and said that she could appoint Francois Bayrou, the centrist who was eliminated on April 22, as her prime minister. Ms Royal needs most of Mr Bayrou's seven million voters from the first round if she is to have a chance of defeating Mr Sarkozy, leader of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, on May 6."

Hillary's dishonesty coming out: "Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton's best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of "discrepancies" in her official story. Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President's Men, has spent eight years researching the unauthorised 640-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past," said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which publishes the book on June 19."

Fleeing France: "This Wednesday Marine Fretel, an intelligent, well-educated young French woman, will board a train to London. She has let her Paris flat, packed a large suitcase and said goodbye to family and friends. She does not expect to return. Fretel is one of the "Eurostar generation" of French professionals fleeing to London and other cities abroad in the hope of better careers in a land of opportunity. The farewell parties held each week in Paris are multiplying, and although the government puts a brave face on the exodus, this rush for the exit is an embarrassing symptom of chronic French woes as the country prepares to pick its new president. A dearth of jobs in France, the world's fifth largest economy, has turned London, less than three hours from Paris by Eurostar, into an eldorado for young professionals such as Fretel. Friends in London have told her that the British capital, unlike the one she is leaving behind, is a "city of dreams".... An estimated 300,000 French citizens live in Britain, which has the third largest expatriate community after Switzerland and America."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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JEWISH SUPERIORITY CLAIMS SHOCK LEFTIST

I have got a lot of posts from Chris Brand to put up but have not had time to do so. I think however that the post below is worth a run here. Chris comments on the amazing (but yet typical) arrogance of a Leftist who admits he knows nothing about statistics but who then proceeds to pontificate on a statistical matter -- with the total disregard for the evidence that one expects of a Leftist, of course. It should not surprise anybody that the ignoramus is also anti-American

Jewish (but non-Israel-backing) New York Review of Books contributor Tony Judt complained to the Melbourne Sun Herald (10 iv) about Bell Curve author Charles Murray rehearsing claims of substantial Jewish advantage in IQ.

Murray had written an article in the Jewish magazine Commentary suggesting Nebuchadnezzar, c. 600BC, had in effect created the super-intelligent Jewish race by taking off the Jerusalem Jews' elite to Babylon and letting the remaining Jews be extinguished or absorbed into other faiths. But though a 10-point Ashkenazi-Jewish IQ superiority in the USA had been documented in studies as early as 1924 and 1948 and was well attested in Israel itself by 1990 (see R. Lynn, 2006, "Race Differences in Intelligence", p. 94), and though NYU historian Judt had been an Exhibitioner at King's College Cambridge and sported a Cambridge Ph.D., Murray's mere rehearsal of the superiority shocked him into losing all credibility by opining "My own statistically naive impression these days is that intelligence ... is distributed among Jews in proportions comparable to their presence in society as a whole."

A generation previously, psychologist Marvin Zuckerman had noted "Only 3% of Americans are Jewish, but 27% of American Nobel Laureates have been Jewish (1977, Scientific Elite); and Lenin had once observed "An intelligent Russian is almost always a Jew or someone with Jewish blood in his veins" (recorded by R. Pipes, 1990, The Russian Revolution). By 1995, sociologists Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab recorded:"During the last three decades, Jews have made up 50% of the top two hundred intellectuals, 40 percent of American Nobel Prize Winners in science and economics, 20 percent of professors at the leading universities, 21 percent of high level civil servants, 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, 26% of the reporters, editors, and executives of the major print and broadcast media, 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series" (Jews and the New American Scene, Harvard University Press).

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Boris the Liberator, RIP: "Credit for the fall of communism usually is given to two sets of actors. On the one side, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and John Paul II, whose relentless pressure caused a hollowed-out system to collapse. On the other side, conventional mythology credits Mikhail Gorbachev. This is quite wrong. True, Gorbachev inadvertently caused the collapse of communism. But his intention was always to save it. To the very end, Gorbachev believed in it. His mission was to reform communism in order to make it work. To do that, the Soviet system had to become more human - i.e., more in tune with real human nature - and thus more humane. Gorbachev's problem was that humane communism is an oxymoron. The man who brought down the Soviet Union from the inside was Boris Yeltsin. In the mid-1980s, he turned decisively against communism and, fully intending its destruction, performed one of history's great acts of liberation".

Mexican-led OECD sliding into corruption: "Whereas the World Bank story is all about whether or not Mr Wolfowitz did or did not break some rules, the OECD events suggest an organisation that seems to be lacking in modern rules and practices when it comes to its own internal workings. So a 30-nation think-tank, devoted to promoting best practice in governance, has governance issues of its own. Concern over the lack of transparent competition in filling some appointments led the Canadian delegation to draw attention, in a letter to Mr Gurria dated April 4th, to the fact that "the OECD secretariat and its senior management must embody, and be seen to embody, the very highest standards of good governance. Anything less can threaten the integrity and credibility of the organisation." ... Many of the envoys had been unhappy at the pay deal Mr Gurria landed on top of the rent-free residence. His basic pay of 183,000 euros was boosted by a confidential package: an expatriate's allowance of 33,000 euros (unprecedented for the top man), a household allowance of 11,000 euros and a "representation" allowance boosted to 50,000 euros. That latter can be spent as he thinks best and is not subject to audit. A rather loose definition of "normal expenses" led to some raised eyebrows among officials who saw an invoice for a wedding anniversary dinner for Mr Gurria with his wife"

Deadly black gang brawling in London: "A churchgoing teenager who who was also the head of a South London gang was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for the murder of a schoolboy rival. Adu Sarpong had been to a Bible class with friends hours before a bloody street battle with a rival gang in which he stabbed Alex Kamondo, 15, with a kitchen knife. Sarpong, 18, who was convicted at the Old Bailey, was the leader of K Town Crew, which clashed with Kamondo's gang, Man Dem Crew, in Kennington in June. Up to 30 youths fought with knives, hammers, metal bars, bottles and a samurai-style sword... Sarpong plunged the knife into Kamondo's chest with so much force that it broke a rib and the handle snapped off. Kamondo, who lived on the nearby Kennington Park estate, suffered a single 20cm stab wound that pierced his left lung and heart. Sarpong fled but was arrested shortly afterwards. He told the Old Bailey that he had been "pumped up with adrenaline" and heard someone cry out that he had been stabbed behind him, but did not see the stabbing. However, his finger-prints were found on the murder weapon and he was picked out at a series of identity parades by members of the opposing gang."

Pakistan: The Taliban takeover: "You must understand," says Maulana Sami ul-Haq, "that Pakistan and Islam are synonymous." The principal of Darul Uloom Haqqania, a seminary in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a tall and jovial man. He grabs my hand as he takes me round the seminary. Maulana ul-Haq laughs when I ask his views on jihad. "It is the duty of all Muslims to support those groups fighting against oppression," he says.... Pakistan is reverberating with the call of jihad. For more than two months, the capital, Islamabad, has been held hostage by a group of burqa-clad women, armed with sticks and shouting: "Al-jihad, al-jihad." These female students belong to two madrasas attached to the Lal Masjid, a large mosque near one of the city's main supermarkets. I found the atmosphere around the masjid tense, with heavily armed police surrounding the building. Though the students were allowed to go in and out freely, no one else could enter the mosque. The women are demanding the imposition of sharia law and the instant abolition of all "dens of vice".

Misguided rage at US supremacy: "When the 9/11 terror attacks occurred in the US, the official reaction of the Iraqi government was ecstatic. Saddam Hussein issued a statement saying: "The American cowboy is reaping the fruits of his crimes against humanity." As two Iraqi authors write in a new study: "Saddam Hussein did his utmost to implant in the Iraqi psyche an ugly image of the US: coloniser, Zionist, bully and greedy oil thief." At the same time, the opponents of Saddam had come to be profoundly hostile to the US for exactly the opposite reason. After the 1991 US-led operation to reverse Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, the Shia in the south and the Kurds in the north rebelled against Saddam's rule, only to be savagely crushed. The Americans did not come to the aid of the rebels, who saw this, with some justice, as American betrayal. Here is a classic contradiction of anti-Americanism. The Americans are hated by one segment of Iraqi society for opposing Saddam and are hated equally by another section for not opposing Saddam enough."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Another conservative site goes down

Just recently, "American Thinker" lost their web address to a scamster and got it back only with great difficulty. Now "Front Page" has gone down. It was still down at the time of writing this. I would not have been able to find the article below except that (as a former FrontPage author) I am on David Horowitz's mailing list. I had to substitute in the address "frontpagemagazine" for "frontpagemag".

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The Real Jimmy Carter

By Alan M. Dershowitz

I have known Jimmy Carter for years. I first met him in the spring of 1976 when, as a relatively unknown candidate for president, he sent me a handwritten letter asking for my help in his campaign on issues of crime and justice. I had just published an article in The New York Times Magazine on sentencing reform, and he expressed interest in my ideas and asked me to come up with additional ones for his campaign. Shortly thereafter, my former student, Stuart Eisenstadt, brought Carter to Harvard to meet with some faculty members, me among them. I immediately liked Jimmy Carter and saw him as a man of integrity and principle. I signed on to his campaign and worked very hard for his election.

When Newsweek magazine asked his campaign for the names of people on whom Carter relied for advice, my name was among those given out. I continued to work for Carter over the years, most recently I met him in Jerusalem a year ago, and we briefly discussed the Mid-East. Though I disagreed with some of his points, I continued to believe that he was making them out of a deep commitment to principle and to human rights.

Recent disclosures of Carter's extensive financial connections to Arab oil money, particularly from Saudi Arabia, had deeply shaken my belief in his integrity. When I was first told that he received a monetary reward in the name of Shiekh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, and kept the money, even after Harvard returned money from the same source because of its anti-Semitic history, I simply did not believe it. How could a man of such apparent integrity enrich himself with dirty money from so dirty a source?

And let there be no mistake about how dirty the Zayed Foundation is. I know because I was involved, in a small way, in helping to persuade Harvard University to return more than $2 million that the financially strapped Divinity School received from this source. Initially, I was reluctant to put pressure on Harvard to turn back money for the Divinity School, but then a student at the Divinity School, Rachael Lea Fish showed me the facts.

They were staggering. I was amazed that in the twenty-first century there were still foundations that espoused these views. The Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, a think-tank funded by the Shiekh and run by his son, hosted speakers who called Jews "the enemies of all nations," attributed the assassination of John Kennedy to Israel and the Mossad and the 9/11 attacks to the United States' own military, and stated that the Holocaust was a "fable." (They also hosted a speech by Jimmy Carter.) To its credit, Harvard turned the money back. To his discredit, Carter did not.

Jimmy Carter was, of course, aware of Harvard's decision, since it was highly publicized. Yet he kept the money. Indeed, this is what he said in accepting the funds: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." Carter's personal friend, it turns out, was an unredeemable anti-Semite and all-around bigot.

In reading Carter's statements, I was reminded of the bad old Harvard of the nineteen thirties, which continued to honor Nazi academics after the anti-Semitic policies of Hitler's government became clear. Harvard of the nineteen thirties was complicit in evil. I sadly concluded that Jimmy Carter of the twenty-first century has become complicit in evil....

If money determines political and public views as Carter insists "Jewish money" does, Carter's views on the Middle East must be deemed to have been influenced by the vast sums of Arab money he has received. If he who pays the piper calls the tune, then Carter's off-key tunes have been called by his Saudi Arabian paymasters. It pains me to say this, but I now believe that there is no person in American public life today who has a lower ratio of real to apparent integrity than Jimmy Carter.

More (much more) here

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Wal-Mart healthcare expanding: "Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., (NYSE: WMT) intends to contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics over the next two to three years, and if current market forces continue, up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years, Wal-Mart president and CEO Lee Scott will say in a speech later today at the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. The clinic program's expansion is just the latest in a series of moves by Wal-Mart to help implement customer solutions to America's health care crisis, including the $4 generic drug prescription program, health information technology and participation in a major coalition supporting comprehensive healthcare reform by 2012. "We think the clinics will be a great opportunity for our business. But most importantly, they are going to provide something our customers and communities desperately need - affordable access at the local level to quality health care," Scott says."

Netherlands: School Scraps Nature Course As Pigs Enrage Muslim Pupils: "A school in Amsterdam has halted lessons on rural life because the Islamic children refused to talk about pigs. Reporting this, Alderman Lodewijk Asscher said he wants to take "tough measures." Subsidies for all kinds of dubious groups must stop and parents of unruly children penalised financially. Asscher told newspaper De Volkskrant: "A primary school in Amsterdam-Noord has decided no longer to teach about living on a farm. Various pupils began to demolish the classroom when the pig came up for discussion. Apparently it has gone that far. These children, 9, 10 years old, have not been given even the most elementary rules at home about why they must go to school."

Jewish woman suffers vicious anti-Semitic attack in France: "A 22-year-old Jewish woman suffered a vicious anti-Semitic attack by two men of Middle Eastern appearance in a train station in Marseille, France on Thursday night. The attackers tore the Star of David chain from around the young woman's neck, lifted her up, painted a swastika on her stomach and then fled the scene. Local police opened an investigation into the attack but had not yet found the assailants."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Brookes News Update

The 2008 Olympics and Beijing's crackdown on religion: Authoritarian regimes, including pre-war Japan, never had trouble in accommodating most religions. Beijing should learn to do likewise. It could start by releasing those imprisoned for their faith, insisting only that they "give to Caesar that which is Caesar's". It would pay the regime dividends to do this
Defending economic growth against leftwing fanatics, part II: Marxism is nothing but a cult whose disciples are in a constant state of denial about economic reality. This means that they must continually slander capitalism and denigrate economic success stories. They have nothing to give other than their ideological bigotry
The untold story of how Friederich von Hayek caught inflation by the balls: True story of how von Hayek - doyen of the Austrian school and Nobel Laureate in Economics - who single-handedly caught inflation by the balls
Is global warming a science?: Does climatology have a well-developed, thoroughly proven theoretical framework, derived from decades of observations and earlier discoveries? Does it have an established track record of being able to predict next week's weather, much less the next century's weather?
A global intelligence briefing for CEOs: Herbert Meyer lays out the future based on four major transformations that are shaping political, economic and world events. These transformations have profound implications for American business owners, our culture and our way of life - not to mention Europe and Australia

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The love affair of the American Left with Cuba continues

A comment on a report from Will Weissert, Havana correspondent of the Associated Press, excerpted from Taranto:

Just how biased is Weissert's piece in favor of Cuba's communist dictatorship? Consider this quote:

"Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don't," said Raquel Naring, a 70-year-old retired gas station attendant. "But there aren't elderly people sleeping on the street like other places."

If an old American lady told a reporter, "Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don't," is there any doubt he would write a story bewailing our country's shocking neglect of the elderly, poor and hungry? Why are American journalists more favorably disposed toward an America-hating communist personality cult than their own country?

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ELSEWHERE

There is a post here showing that the myth of Jessica Lynch fighting back against her Iraqi captors was an invention of the media, not an invention of the U.S. military.

How the Media Partnered With Hezbollah: Harvard's Cautionary Report: "While the war between Israel and Hezbollah raged in Lebanon and Israel last summer, it became clear that media coverage had itself started to play an important role in determining the ultimate outcome of that war. It seemed clear that news coverage would affect the course of the conflict. And it quickly transpired that Hezbollah would become the beneficiary of the media's manipulation. A close examination of the media's role during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon comes now from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, in an analysis of the war published in a paper whose subtitle should give pause to journalists covering international conflict: "The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict." Marvin Kalb, of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, methodically traces the transformation of the media "from objective observer to fiery advocate." Kalb painstakingly details how Hezbollah exercised absolute control over how journalists portrayed its side of the conflict, while Israel became "victimized by its own openness."

Another triumph of British bureaucracy: "The Government's bungling over farm subsidy payments is clearly far from resolved after it emerged one Yorkshire claimant due more than 20,000 pounds has received just 89 pounds. Susan Maudsley, 60, from near Settle, who had expected subsidies in excess of 10,000 in 2005 and 2006, is a striking example of continuing chaos at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The RPA admitted last summer that it was at fault in her case - and yet officials are even refusing to pay out her 2006 subsidy until the previous year has been resolved. Shadow Agriculture Minister Jim Paice called the case "an outrage" that showed Ministers at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) were still failing to get a grip on the RPA which has come under fierce fire over the late payment of subsidies to thousands of farmers."

Africans for Wolfowitz : "One of the most revealing subplots in the European coup attempt against World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is who is coming to the American's defense. The rich European donor countries want him to resign, while the Africans who are the bank's major clients are encouraging him to stay.... The more telling story is the support for the bank president from reform-minded Africans. At a press conference during this month's World Bank-IMF meetings in Washington, four of the more progressive African finance ministers were asked about the Wolfowitz flap. Here's how Antoinette Sayeh, Liberia's finance minister, responded: "I would say that Wolfowitz's performance over the last several years and his leadership on African issues should certainly feature prominently in the discussions . . . . In the Liberian case and the case of many forgotten post-conflict fragile countries, he has been a visionary. He has been absolutely supportive, responsive, there for us . . . . We think that he has done a lot to bring Africa in general . . . into the limelight and has certainly championed our cause over the last two years of his leadership, and we look forward to it continuing."

More selective reporting: "The Vermont House rejected a resolution calling for President Bush and Vice President Cheney's impeachment in an 87-60 vote Wednesday, a move that puts that chamber at odds with the Senate's actions last week. Despite the fact that the vote was taken yesterday afternoon, neither NPR nor PBS have reported on it, unlike last week when the Vermont Senate voted for the resolution. The House vote must have slipped their notice... "

The Leftist elite are not taking any notice of Al Gore's climate preaching: "A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season. For Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, it was wheels up shortly after they voted in favor of legislation requiring that U.S. troops begin returning home from Iraq in the fall. No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions. All but Biden, who flew on a private jet, chartered their flights -- a campaign expense of between $7,500 and $9,000. Federal Election Commission rules allow candidates to pay only the equivalent of first-class fare to fly on private jets owned by corporations or other special interests".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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THE REASONS FOR CONSERVATIVE CAUTION REDISCOVERED

Even the experts find that the real world is unpredictable

Mr. Taleb is fascinated by the rare but pivotal events that characterize life in the power-law world. He calls them Black Swans, after the philosopher Karl Popper's observation that only a single black swan is required to falsify the theory that "all swans are white" even when there are thousands of white swans in evidence. Provocatively, Mr. Taleb defines Black Swans as events (such as the rise of the Internet or the fall of LTCM) that are not only rare and consequential but also predictable only in retrospect. We never see them coming, but we have no trouble concocting post hoc explanations for why they should have been obvious. Surely, Mr. Taleb taunts, we won't get fooled again. But of course we will.

Writing in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne, Mr. Taleb divides the world into those who "get it" and everyone else, a world partitioned into heroes (Popper, Hayek, Yogi Berra), those on notice (Harold Bloom, necktie wearers, personal-finance advisers) and entities that are dead to him (the bell curve, newspapers, the Nobel Prize in Economics).

A humanist at heart, Mr. Taleb ponders not only the effect of Black Swans but also the reason we have so much trouble acknowledging their existence. And this is where he hits his stride. We eagerly romp with him through the follies of confirmation bias (our tendency to reaffirm our beliefs rather than contradict them), narrative fallacy (our weakness for compelling stories), silent evidence (our failure to account for what we don't see), ludic fallacy (our willingness to oversimplify and take games or models too seriously), and epistemic arrogance (our habit of overestimating our knowledge and underestimating our ignorance).

For anyone who has been compelled to give a long-term vision or read a marketing forecast for the next decade, Mr. Taleb's chapter excoriating "The Scandal of Prediction" will ring painfully true. "What is surprising is not the magnitude of our forecast errors," observes Mr. Taleb, "but our absence of awareness of it." We tend to fail--miserably--at predicting the future, but such failure is little noted nor long remembered. It seems to be of remarkably little professional consequence.

I suspect that part of the explanation for this inconsistency may be found in a study of stock analysts that Mr. Taleb cites. Their predictions, while badly inaccurate, were not random but rather highly correlated with each other. The lesson, evidently, is that it's better to be wrong than alone.

If we accept Mr. Taleb's premise about power-law ascendancy, we are left with a troubling question: How do you function in a world where accurate prediction is rarely possible, where history isn't a reliable guide to the future and where the most important events cannot be anticipated?

Mr. Taleb presents a range of answers--be prepared for various outcomes, he says, and don't rush for buses--but it's clear that he remains slightly vexed by the world he describes so vividly. Then again, beatific serenity may not be the goal here. As Mr. Taleb warns, certitude is likely to be found only in a fool's (bell-curve) paradise, where we choose the comfort of the "precisely wrong" over the challenge of the "broadly correct." Beneath Mr. Taleb's blustery rhetoric lives a surprisingly humble soul who has chosen to follow a demanding and somewhat lonely path.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

There is a good takedown here of some crooked public opinion polling which claims that antisemitism in Germany is decreasing.

Once again journalism's once-prestigious Pulitzer prize has been awarded to a deceitful New York Times story

Probably Bush's fault: "Several French political parties demanded the withdrawal of electronic voting machines for the second round of the presidential election after widespread problems during Sunday's ballot. The Socialists, the Communist Party and the Greens put on a rare show of unity to call the machines a "catastrophe". It is the first time the machines have been used for a presidential election in France. Amid big queues in general to vote, people using the electronic machines were forced to wait up to two hours to cast ballots. About 1.5 million voters out of the 44.5 million nationally were able to use the machines. The left wing parties complained following problems at Noisy-le-Sec, a suburb east of Paris."

Musharraf Caves to Red Mosque Demands: "Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain visited Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and conveyed to its two leaders that the Pakistani government has accepted all of Lal Masjid's demands, including the implementation of Sharia Law in Pakistan. It is another example of the Musharraf government's inability to contain the pro-Taliban and pro-al-Qaeda Islamist movement inside Pakistan. While ceding real estate to the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance through the various `peace accords' that handed terrorists South Waziristan, North Waziristan and Bajour agencies is troubling in its own right, this latest set of concessions is more troubling still."

Toyota ends GM's 76-year streak: "TOYOTA breezed past General Motors in the first quarter to claim world sales leadership and appears to have a clear road ahead to remain No 1, except for a few potholes in its path. Industry analysts said Toyota might have too few engineers and managers trained in the company's renowned production system to continue expanding its lines and maintain its reputation for quality, which the car maker said was its top priority."

Why they hate Israel: "There is something about Israel that enrages the left- and that something has to do with having to engage evil on a daily basis. The Israelis must deal with an evil that is real, evident and clearly defined. For the left, evil can not exist because the recognition of evil forces societies and cultures to set boundaries and limitations. Even more, evil helps to define culture and communal behavior. If there is no evil, the individual and the individual's needs and wants are of paramount concern. If there is evil, then the community and the needs of the community are of concern. The needs of the individual are subjugated. For the narcissistic individual, this is a catastrophe of the highest order, and that is why for the narcissistic leftists, the only evil they can acknowledge is the evil that places the welfare pf the community or state over the welfare of the individual. In the case of Israel, that must be done every single day. To not put the safety and well being of the community at the fore would result in disaster."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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MODERN CALIFORNIA RACISM AT WORK:

Note the contrast in the sentences below. Clear anti-white bias:

Black youths offered deals in race hate case: "Two black youths accused of taking part in the Halloween mob beating of three white women would spend only a few months in custody if they plead guilty to assault, a prosecutor said. The 15-year-old Jordan High School students were offered a pretrial deal Monday in Inglewood, where their case is being heard. They would spend no more than three months each in the California Youth Authority if they plead guilty to one count each of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, prosecutor Andrea Bouas said."

But much harsher sentence for whites who injured no-one: "Two young Lassen County men are facing prison sentences after pleading guilty Monday in Sacramento federal court to a race-based hate crime involving a cross-burning. Kevin William Ridenour and Nicholas Edward Craig pleaded guilty to felony interference with the housing rights of an African priest because of their hatred of black people. Ridenour and Craig admitted burning a large wooden cross early on March 23 on the street in front of the driveway of a rectory attached to Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Westwood. The rectory, which is less than half a block from where the pair resided, is occupied by the Rev. Bernardin Mugabowakigeri, a native of Rwanda. In written plea documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner agreed to recommend two years in prison for Ridenour, 21, and 21 months for Craig, 18, when they are sentenced July 2."

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The great Google dinosaur does listen

But only with one ear

A couple of times recently I have had a grumble about Google not archiving stuff that I expected to find via them. There has now been a big improvement. Lots that was missing is now findable via them. I have long known that they keep close track of what people are saying about them and I have found before that they do respond quite rapidly to public criticism of what they archive.

So where almost all of my academic journal articles were unknown to them a couple of weeks ago, most are now in the Google archive, for instance. That "most" is puzzling though. All my academic papers are on the one site so why do some get the nod from Google and some not? I would understand it if the ones often referred to by others were the ones that they archive but that does not seem to be so. Academic articles are notorious for obscurity and some of mine are certainly in that category. Yet there are instances of Google indexing obscure ones and omitting less obscure ones. Clearly, their search and storage algorithms still are pretty buggy.

I guess what has happened is that Google has attempted to cope with the huge explosion of internet content by attempting to make their algorithms "smarter" (more selective). That is not working well, however. Their algorithms definitely skip far too much. Searching for academic articles on a given topic is a major search activity. Students and professors do it all the time. So ALL available academic journal articles should be findable via Google if they don't want to leave the door open for better search services. Given their huge profits Google should just invest in more storage and archive the WHOLE of any site that they spider. For there to be several copies of an article on the net with Google being unable to locate a single one of them is pretty bad but when the article concerned is (and has long been) on a site that they scan, that is pretty wacky.

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IQ COMPLEXITIES

There is a press report here which says rather gleefully that higher IQ is linked to higher earnings but not to higher wealth. The actual journal abstract from which the press report is derived is much more interesting, however so here it is:

"How important is intelligence to financial success? Using the NLSY79, which tracks a large group of young U.S. baby boomers, this research shows that each point increase in IQ test scores raises income by between $234 and $616 per year after holding a variety of factors constant. Regression results suggest no statistically distinguishable relationship between IQ scores and wealth. Financial distress, such as problems paying bills, going bankrupt or reaching credit card limits, is related to IQ scores not linearly but instead in a quadratic relationship. This means higher IQ scores sometimes increase the probability of being in financial difficulty.

So high IQ people spend their extra loot rather than saving it and risk it rather than protect it. Maybe that is smart. It could mean that people who are both smart and well-off are an important source of those risk-taking entrepreneurs we all need to create new businesses and new jobs.

I have had a quick look at the full journal article (kindly sent to me by Prof. Zagorsky) and the data do appear to be of unusually high quality so I think these findings can be relied on. It may be worth noting that the relationship between IQ and income has often been found previously.

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ELSEWHERE

Leftist deceit again. There is an eyewiness account here of what actually happened in the confrontation between Greenie Sheryl Crow and Karl Rove.

Islamofascism as a mental illness: "Larwyn suggests that we consider creating a neologism to cover the obvious hatred that some Muslims display toward infidels - i.e, the rest of us. Larwyn suggests Kuffarphobia but Myrtus points out that we use the plural of kuffar to make a more easily pronounced word: Kuffarphobia doesn't flow as well as kafirophobia, which means the same thing. Kuffar is plural for kafir So hatred of infidels (CAIR? Helllooo??) now has a nice tidy term: kafirophobia. Try it on them the next time you object to some jihadist blowing people up and they try to hang an Islamophobe sign on you. Maybe we can even get kafirophobia listed in the DSM-IV or the ICD as the mental illness it obviously is. Given the many symptoms they exhibit - paranoia, hypersensitivity, feelings of narcissistic superiority, and the desire to kill those who disagree with them - kafirophobes definitely qualify for their own separate diagnostic disorder. Maybe if the world hadn't put on its Orwellian glasses just in time for the rise of the jihadists, exhibitions of such behavior would've had them in the revised edition of the DSM-IV by now.

Al Qaeda regrouping: "British authorities arrest six suspected terrorists. As discussed on yesterday's show with Melanie Phillips and Gerard Baker, and as will be discussed with Lawrence Wright today, the evidence of efforts by al Qaeda to strike in the west is growing, and the indifference of the public to the threat is astonishing. Al Qaeda is regrouping in some strange places like Mali, and while its forces in Iraq are repeatedly defeated and its leadership there killed or captured, the network's propagandists continue to push out messages claiming success there and encouraging jihadists to come to Iraq to join in the war. In the U.S., despite efforts by some serious journalists like Wright and Michael Barone to keep some focus on the threat from al Qaeda in Iraq and elsewhere across the globe, the public is repeatedly told by the Democrats and the MSM that the U.S. can withdraw from Iraq and fight terrorism effectively in Afghanistan. This is delusional and dangerous, but so seductive that it will probably take another spectacularly lethal attack for the west to confront the menace with renewed resolve". [More on the British arrests here].

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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