A LESSON FROM SARKO

In the campaign, Sarkozy argued that the French have to work longer hours and, in order to give them an incentive to do so, that they shouldn't pay taxes if they work overtime. He called for tax cuts to encourage investment so the private sector can create jobs. And critically, Sarkozy has said that the people must obey the law, that the creation of law and respect for the law is a central part of any civilized society.

Remember, this is a jarring message for a country that routinely accepts the burning of up to 15,000 cars a year by hooligans who, according to the elites, are simply "expressing their desire to disrupt society." It's jarring for a country that was very proud a few years back to have the first mandatory 35-hour work week in history. Yet an increasing majority of the French believes that without the kind of changes Sarkozy is calling for, France's stature will disappear in a wave of lawlessness and economic decay.

As for the opposition in the French election, much like the American Democratic Party, it is trapped by its commitment to big labor, big bureaucracy, high taxes and social values people don't believe in. Every time French voters seriously looked at Segolene Royal and the kind of politics she represents, she lost ground. She simply couldn't make the case that left-wing Socialist policies would work.

The result was a surprising and powerful upset by Sarkozy -- a victory by a center-right reformer, a member of the unpopular ruling party, who came to personify change. And here's where American Republicans really need to pay attention: In France, voting for change meant voting for the party in office, but not the personality in office. And voting to keep the old order meant voting for the opposition, not for the incumbent party.

If Republicans hope to win the presidency next year, they better find a candidate who is prepared to stand for very bold, very dramatic and very systematic change in Washington. Not only that, but they had better make the case that the left-wing Democrat likely to be nominated represents the failed status quo: the bureaucracies that are failing, the social policies that are failing, the high tax policies that are failing, and the weakness around the world that has failed so badly in protecting America.

Source

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It may seem perverse but the picture above all by itself tells me what a great nation America is -- in my view the greatest nation the world has ever seen. It grieves me greatly to see the extent to which it has at present falen into the hands of corrupt and venal Congressional cowards. You need to see where that picture came from. I hope others will see something of what I see in the picture above -- the inextinguishable pride for start. Perhaps because I have some small military background myself, it moves me deeply.

Historian Dan Mandel has an excellent put-down for those who try to distort what Winston Churchill stood for.

Outvoted by Hispanics?: "The 2008 election may see a vast number of new Hispanic voters streaming to the polls and voting Democrat, thanks to behind the scenes maneuvers by the Democrats' biggest sugar daddy of all. The outlines of the plan became clear yesterday when putting together stories in 2 of America's leading business publications. The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story on May10th regarding Univision's campaign to spur millions of Hispanic residents to become U.S. citizens. Univision is, by far, the largest Spanish-language broadcasting network in America. The Journal article pointed out the momentous electoral consequences of this development: since Hispanics tend to vote Democratic an increasingly large number of them with a right to vote will favor the Democratic party in 2008. This is particularly so since so many Spanish-speaking residents are concentrated in states rich in electoral votes. This unprecedented effort on the part of Univision could very likely swing the Presidential election to the Democratic Party."

U.S. economy is surging: "Mark Crutsinger of the AP did not disappoint me by burying his lead at the very bottom of his latest report on federal tax revenues and spending: For April, revenue receipts totaled $383.64 billion while spending totaled $205.97 billion, leaving a surplus for the month of $177.7 billion. While Crutsinger pointed out that revenues are always up in April, he did not bother to compare this April's figure to last April's. On May 10, 2006, Crutsinger reported that revenues were $315.1 billion in April 2006. This April's revenues were $383.64 billion - an increase of 22%. How will liberals spin this? Bush isn't spending fast enough? It is unlikely that the budget will be balanced this year, but the deficit looks to be far smaller than the one the Congressional Budget Office projected just 2 years ago"

Gonzales deflects Democrats' criticism: "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confidently deflected House Democrats' demands Thursday for details in the firings of U.S. attorneys, appearing ever more likely to survive accusations that the dismissals were politically motivated. Republican lawmakers rushed to Gonzales' defense as the attorney general denied anew that the firings last year were improper. The mostly muted five-hour hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee was a sharp contrast to Gonzales' sometimes testy appearance three weeks ago when Senate Republicans questioned his competence to run the Justice Department.

United Nations looniness again: "Britain and other Western nations were fighting a rear-guard action last night to block Zimbabwe from heading an influential United Nations organisation responsible for development. Despite running one of the world's most disastrous economies, Francis Nheme, the Zimbabwean Environment Minister, is expected today to become chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, the body that monitors the environment and development."

Support For Israel: "The two leading partisan pollsters, Republican-leaning Public Opinion Strategies and Democrat-leaning Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research conducted a survey (with link to questionnaire and results) of U.S. "opinion elite" attitude toward Israel. Opinion elite is loosely defined as college grad or post-graduate, all earning above $75,000, 99% saying they will vote in 2008,most regular readers of major newspapers, newsmagazines and TV news viewers. The result is comforting to its sponsor, the pro-Israel Israel Project. Support for Israel is at its highest since 2002, 63% very favorable toward Israel, an increase of 5%. 26% are very favorable toward the Palestinians, a decline from 31% in 2002. Focusing, when competing for support in "the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians" 65% support Israel but only 10% the Palestinians."

Hooray for feet and inches! "Meat, fish, fruit and vegetables can continue to be sold in pounds and ounces in Britain indefinitely, after a U-turn by the European Commission. The decision, disclosed in a letter made public last night, also means that fabrics, carpets and timber and other building materials can be sold in yards, feet or inches. Road signs can remain in miles per hour. The move delighted consumers and shopkeepers after a campaign by the Metric Martyrs that had been backed by the Conservative Party and the British Weights and Measures Association. The British Retail Consortium and other organisations representing butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers and market traders had also lobbied hard to save imperial measures.The campaigners scented victory after saving the crown on a pint glass this year. Their instincts were confirmed by Guenther Verheugen, the Industry Commissioner, who agreed that dual marking of goods in Britain in imperial and metric measures can continue indefinitely. Brussels has insisted previously that the traditional British weights and measures should disappear from labels and shop counters by 2009. Business lobbyists said that keeping pounds and ounces made it easier for British companies to sell to the United States"

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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More evidence of media bias

Bernard Goldberg, renowned author and commentator on media bias (based on his 20+ years as a journalist) once wrote:

"Bias in the media isn't just about what they cover; it's also about what they don't cover. Sherlock Holmes once solved a particularly thorny crime using as his key piece of evidence the dog that didn't bark. It's the same with the news media. What they don't make noise about also tells us a lot about their preconceived notions and their biases."

Well surely Bernie must be feeling vindicated this day. For if there is ever a perfect example of the silence of the media dogs it is in the story of Tina Richards. I recently wrote here about the mother of a Marine and her efforts to meet with Democrats to urge them to end the war. Her tactics were not unlike Cindy Sheehan but instead aimed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whereas Sheehan focused her PR effort on President Bush. I wrote that first article as much to bench mark media reporting as to provide the content. I wanted all to note that Pelosi has her own Sheehan and let's see were the media goes with it by way of comparison.

The result of my little experiment surprised even me, with my calloused eye towards the state of American journalism. Here is what is going on. It appears Tina Richards has been released from the big-house after being arrested for her sit-in at the Speaker's office and is continuing her activism. If you follow the desperately scant media reports on her you can find Richards' own website.

There she posts her thoughts in writing and video. Currently, Richards is organizing a political action called "Swarm on Congress". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out that this is basically an assault on the mechanisms of government to call attention to her cause. You might think a planned congressional sit-in by an aggrieved military mother might qualify as news as it did in Sheehan's case. How wrong you are!

Source

There is also a well documented article here on how the media covers up for Obama's gaffes. Any Republican who got treatment like that would think he was in Heaven.

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There is an interesting article here about Google's "Supplemental Index" -- which is apparently "Google Hell" for advertisers. Some of my articles are in the "Hell" concerned but they are all old ones that I rarely change so that bothers me very little. My content is pretty unique so even my stuff in the supplemental index seems to show up when you look for it. It is the articles that are not indexed at all that get me grouchy. But since I started complaining about it, almost all my stuff has been "rediscovered" by Google. Writing to Google seems to be pointless. It is only public complaints -- such as mine -- that get attention. There are still some strange omissions, though. Why did this article get missed, for instance? According to Google it does not exist anywhere on the net -- even though lots of other articles on the same site ARE in the Google database. The weirdness continues.

How reasonable! "Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses said on Wednesday. The Western-backed government's crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for the Somali capital. When it was under Islamist control in the second half of 2006, women were instructed to cover their heads. Backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes, Somali forces ousted the rival Islamist leaders in January and are trying to secure the capital after a surge of bloody fighting."

Congressional hissy fit: "Veteran political columnist David Broder set off a firestorm recently when he called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid an "embarrassment" for declaring the Iraq war "lost." From the assault subsequently directed at Broder - from other journalists, political operatives, left-wing bloggers and even the entire 50-member Senate Democratic Caucus - you'd have thought Broder had had an intimate encounter with an intern. Or, in the spirit of bipartisanship, had broken into Democratic National Committee headquarters. Broder committed no such dastardly deed, but merely did what he has done for the past 35 years. He called it as he saw it - just as Reid claims to have done, and that his defenders seem to find so refreshing. Nevertheless, the 50 Democratic senators felt compelled to respond.... It is perhaps admirable, and certainly reassuring to Reid, that his fellow senators came to his defense. But this kind of overreaction to a columnist is rare, if not unprecedented, and betrays a disturbing hostility to legitimate criticism. Though Broder is a great political writer, he is not the president of the United States. He doesn't command an army or meet routinely with heads of state to negotiate planetary alignment or even global heating and cooling. He's a commentator. And what, exactly, is a commentator supposed to do if not comment?"

Iran strikes advocated in Christian Science Monitor: "Louis Rene Beres is a nuclear strategist and professor of International Law. In today's Christian Science Monitor Beres calls for preemptive action against Iranian nuclear weapons development: "Unless there is a timely defensive first strike at pertinent elements of Iran's expanding nuclear infrastructures, it will acquire nuclear weapons. The consequences would be intolerable and unprecedented. "A nuclear Iran would not resemble any other nuclear power. There could be no stable "balance of terror" involving that Islamic Republic. Unlike nuclear threats of the cold war, which were governed by mutual assumptions of rationality and mutual assured destruction, a world with a nuclear-armed Iran could explode at any moment."

Deadly food fanaticism: "A vegan couple were sentenced to life in jail yesterday for the murder of their malnourished six-week-old son, who weighed just 3rlb (1.6kg) when he died. Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas fed the boy, who was named Crown Shakur, a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice, the Atlanta court heard. The child was born in a bath-tub in the couple's home and never taken to see a doctor. He was dead when his parents took him to a hospital across the street from their flat on April 25, 2004. He was so emaciated that doctors could count his bones through his skin. The couple maintained during the trial that they did the best they could for the boy while adhering to their vegan lifestyle, a strict form of vegetarianism that does not allow the consumption or use of any products linked to animals." [May they rot!]

Socialist Angst, Cigarettes And Cheese: "Cigarette sales in France are on the rise. A mostly empty and crushed pale blue pack of Gauloise has become the broken badge of the socialists. A new dawn of awareness is adding to the French socialist woes. As they furiously smoke and curse `les stupides` and `les cochons` that voted for Nikolas Sarkosy, there are coming to an awareness they would rather not discuss. Socialists are going to have to work for a living. For the moment, despondent socialists are discussing broken strategies, broken ideologies and the future of their beloved `little people,' who so roundly rejected them and whole lot of what they stood for. For the first time in a very long time, they are having to deal with reality."

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 Kansas tragedy: Blame-Bush buffoonery

Hi, my name is Tim Schieferecke and I'm a native western Kansas farmboy. No, I don't know anyone from Greensburg as I'm from northwest Kansas, but I do know what rural folks from anywhere in Kansas are like. Apparently my current leftist Governor Kathleen Sebelius doesn't though, nor does she comprehend the availability of heavy equipment assets. It was hard for me to hold my lunch down when I heard her craft an anti-Bush spin on the disaster that befell the good people of Greensburg. Slow recovery? This statement is disingenuous at best but in local lingo better understood as a downright lie.

We need trucks? It seems the good Governor doesn't get out of Topeka much. Western Kansas is wheat country, and where there's wheat there's wheat trucks. Incidentally, they fill in quite nicely for hauling away debris when they aren't filled with grain. Why do they really need Hum-vees in the mix? What can they accomplish that a regular old four wheel drive pick-up can't? Other equipment? You can't spit without hitting a tractor, spit a little harder and you'll hit one that has a handy scoop.......

Also, I'd like the Governor to explain just how many National Guard troops it takes to seal off a little town of 1500 from looters? The good Governor points out plainly opportunistically that 40% of all troops overseas are National Guard. Now, assuming that 40% of Kansas troops are engaged elsewhere (that's 3,200 of approximately 8,000 total, there are an estimated 4,800 troops available). To guard a town of 1,500? Do they have that many down on the border? That sounds like overkill to me!

It is beyond me how these libs spin everything towards making our good President guilty of this or that. How is it that President Bush has anything at all to do with a slow response to the catastrophe? How could ANYTHING have been done differently. Oh yeah, I forgot, Bush created global warming by colluding with big oil, that created the perfect F-5 tornado, and if only he had signed Kyoto this tragedy never would have happened. Give me a break!

More here

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British TV veteran disses the BBC: "Sir Patrick Moore has identified an alien species that threatens to destroy intelligent life - the women who have taken over the BBC. The veteran astronomer celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Sky at Night with a withering attack on the female executives he believes have dumbed down the corporation. Sir Patrick's outburst echoes criticisms raised by Alasdair Milne, a former Director-General, who provoked a furious response when he accused a female-dominated BBC of producing "terrible" programmes. Sir Patrick, 84, was asked by the Radio Times if television had got better or worse during a career spanning the medium's life. The answer was worse - "much worse". He said: "The trouble is that the BBC now is run by women and it shows: soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays. You wouldn't have had that in the golden days." They have even destroyed sci-fi, Sir Patrick's personal passion. He said: "I used to watch Doctor Who and Star Trek, but they went PC - making women commanders, that kind of thing. I stopped watching."

Mickey Mouse, jihadi warrior?: "Hamas has now enlisted Mickey Mouse in the War on Terror - as an advocate of Terror against America and Israel, attacking Pres. Bush, Sec. of State Rice and Prime Minister Olmert in a children's television program. They have renamed him Farfur, but he is still obviously and unmistakably our Mickey Mouse. So far, the Disney Corporation has nothing to say about it. The Mouse House is legendary for cracking down on commercial appropriation of their intellectual property. But I doubt they have ever negotiated a deal with a terrorist outfit like Hamas. So you have to wonder how far they will go."

The Danger From Within: "This week we found out that six Muslim men were arrested and charged with plotting to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey, with the intent of killing as many soldiers as they possibly could in the name of Islamic jihad. They were undone when they brought a video they had made to a retail store to be burned onto a DVD. A store employee's suspicions were aroused by the content - the men shooting assault weapons while shouting "Allah Akbar" (God is great) - and he alerted authorities. Will CAIR get involved in this "violation" of the men's civil rights as they did the six imams who were booted from a US Airways flight last year? Should photo store employees worry about being sued for reporting suspicious content as the unidentified employee in New Jersey did? The media was slow to include the suspects' religious affiliation, preferring instead to identify some of the men as being ethnic Albanians. Once the White House announced they were "Islamic militants," however, the cat was out of the bag"

The empty-headed Obama again: "The junior senator from Illinois must have the wettest feet in town because he keeps putting his feet in his mouth. His latest is that 10,000 people died in Kansas - and it is all George Bush's fault. The AP reported: " Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.The death toll was 12."

Mohammed Philby?: "Dozens of suspected Islamic fanatics have been weeded out after attempting to join MI5 and MI6. They were identified by the vetting process applicants go through over six to eight months. The success in exposing the moles has underlined the dangers faced by the security services as they seek to recruit more Muslims. Assuming that most of these would be Mohammed Philbys are British citizens, wouldn't trying to penetrate British intelligence agencies be considered treason? The article doesn't mention any arrests. Are they simply being let go to toddle back off to the nearest extremist mosque?"

Big Win in France/Another Failure for the Media : "The Liberals claim that the world hates America and that anyone who supports America is doomed. Then John Howard goes on to win a decisive victory, Tony Blair is re-elected in historic fashion, Mexico and Canada move conservative and now France! Once again, it is as Bret Stephens wrote in the Wall Street Journal several years ago, that an historian looking for clues leading up to major events like the collapse of the Soviet Union or the end of the Japanese economic "juggernaut" would find (he says "most", I say all) contemporary journalism useless. Why is the contemporary press so useless? Stephens says it's sloth, incompetence and ignorance. I say it's multiculturalism -- the desire to use their power to "prove" that America isn't special. They simply NEED to create a world where the Soviet Union is just as successful as America, where Japan beats us in capitalism and where the rest of the world hates us. It doesn't matter that it's not true because truth is meaningless to the Modern Liberal"

Let the sun shine into the World Bank: "The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens gives us a glimpse of what has been going on inside the corruption-riddled World Bank. (What started as a faux scandal instigated by staffers against the President of the Bank may end up with a bright spotlight being shined on an institution which punished real whistleblowers who highlight theft of funds meant to alleviate world poverty.) A comparative analysis of project performance across six regions shows that during the tenure of Messrs. Sarbib and Madavo, Africa had the highest number of projects yet the lowest likely sustainability percentage, the lowest satisfactory percentage for bank performance and the lowest satisfactory borrower performance at implementation. Mr. Sarbib was subsequently promoted to senior vice president before retiring last year. Mr. Madavo is a visiting professor at Georgetown. Both men recently signed a public letter calling on Paul Wolfowitz to resign for damaging the bank's reputation."

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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Democrat Congress Ignorant On Iraq

The Left-leaning "New Republic" asks (below): How Can Congress Run Iraq If It Doesn't Know A Thing About It?

Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. But, when Nancy Pelosi confessed last year that she felt "sad" about President Bush's claims that Al Qaeda operates in Iraq, she seemed to be disputing what every American soldier in Iraq, every Al Qaeda operative, and anyone who reads a newspaper already knew to be true. (When I questioned him about Pelosi's assertion, a U.S. officer in Ramadi responded, incredulously, that Al Qaeda had just held a parade in his sector.) Perhaps the House speaker was alluding to the discredited claim that Al Qaeda operated in Iraq before the war. Perhaps. But the insinuation that Al Qaeda's depredations in Iraq might be something other than what they appear to be has become a staple of the congressional debate over Iraq. Thus, to buttress his own case for withdrawal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "We have to change course [away from Iraq] and turn our attention back to the war on Al Qaeda and their allies" - the clear message being that neither plays much of a role there.

What is going on here? There are two possibilities: First, Reid and Pelosi could be purposefully minimizing the stakes in Iraq. Or, second, they don't know what they're talking about. My guess is some combination of the two. Political maneuvering certainly contributes to the everyday pollution of Iraq discourse. But a lot of the pollution derives from legislators being functionally illiterate about the war over which Congress now intends to preside. In this, of course, they're hardly alone. The Bush administration's wretched Iraq literacy has been well-chronicled. But, with Congress demanding a louder say in the management of the war, the same knowledge gap that plagued our arrival in Iraq looks like it will be revived just in time for our departure.

Whatever explains the literacy gap, this much at least is obvious: Having been called into being by politicians on both sides of the aisle, the war in Iraq no longer bears a relation to anything they say. You don't need to cherry-pick quotes to prove the point: Nearly every time a senator's mouth opens, something wrong comes out. A typical example came a few weeks ago when Senator Joseph Biden took to the op-ed page of The Washington Post. In response to an equally surreal op-ed by Senator John McCain, Biden wrote,

The most damning evidence that the "results" McCain cites are illusory is the city of Tall Afar. Architects of the president's plan called it a model because in 2005, a surge of about 10,000 Americans and Iraqis pacified the city. Then we left Tall Afar, just as our troops soon will leave the Baghdad neighborhoods that they have calmed.

A minor detail perhaps, but "we" never left Tal Afar. In 2006, the First Brigade of the First Armored Division replaced the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, actually boosting the number of Americans in the city. Biden's analysis will also come as news for the 25th Infantry Division, whose soldiers were patrolling the streets of Tal Afar even as the senator claimed otherwise. Not to single Biden out: Who can forget Representative John Murtha's suggestion that it would be a cinch for American forces to "redeploy" from Iraq to nearby Okinawa, 5,000 miles from Baghdad? Or House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes not knowing whether Sunni or Shia populate the ranks of Al Qaeda? U.S. officers in Iraq say that, during their briefings to visiting delegations, they routinely find themselves subjected to examples of congressional oversight along the lines of: Is (the northern city of) Mosul east or west of Baghdad? What's the difference between a brigade and battalion?

As to why some of Capitol Hill's would-be war managers can't name more than a single Iraqi province, officers and journalists offer all kinds of theories. A common explanation points to the shrinking percentage of veterans in Congress, which amounts to a paltry fraction of the World War II cohort that legislated the war in Vietnam (and, incidentally, did a lousy job). But the ranks of the confused feature enough veterans, most notably Reid and Murtha, to disprove the theory. Another blames the reluctance of delegations to venture beyond the Green Zone or the bases they visit - and, then, their reluctance to be dazed by the sheer unfamiliarity of it all. "I'll never forget the helicopters coming in at night delivering wounded to the hospital in the Green Zone," the Iraq Study Group's Leon Panetta marveled to The Washington Post. "We've all seen 'M.A.S.H.,' and yet it was happening right there." Which brings us to yet another explanation for the literacy gap: Today's wise men don't exactly rise to the level of their predecessors. In place of William Bundy and Walt Rostow, we have Panetta and Vernon Jordan; as the custodian of William Fulbright's legacy, we have Harry Reid. The former hungered for the data and lacuna of war; the latter seem frankly uninterested.

More than that, congressional leaders often seem loath even to hear about events on the ground. During General Petraeus's visit to Washington last week, for example, House Democrats at first denied the Iraq commander an opportunity to brief them, citing "scheduling conflicts." And, when he finally did brief Congress, the evidence of progress that Petraeus was expected to present was dismissed before he even offered it. "He's the commander," Senator Carl Levin reasoned. "We always know that commanders are optimistic about their policies." The joke here, of course, is that Levin and his colleagues were not so long ago denouncing the Bush administration - and rightly so - for the sin of disparaging military expertise. True, civilians have no obligation to heed that expertise. They do, however, have an obligation to be informed or, at a minimum, to listen.

But, then, expertise may be beside the point. Obliviousness, after all, has its uses. It comforts the sensibilities of politicians whose varying levels of awareness allow them to favor certain facts and not others. Obliviousness testifies to the virtue and good intentions of members of Congress who, in truth, couldn't care less what comes next in Iraq. It invites Americans to indulge in the conceit that what happens in Washington obviates the need to think seriously about what happens in Baghdad.

More here

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Kurds expose Palestinian failure: "I want to compare the Kurds to the Palestinians.... consciously or not, and I believe consciously, the Kurds followed the example of what the Zionists did from the twenties on. For several decades, even under the raging reign of Saddam Hussein, they built an educational system and a health system, they had a working Kurdish government that no one recognized, they paid attention to all of the requirements for civil society. There is a vibrant economy and it is generating serious foreign investment. It is true that, for the last dozen years or so, their ambitious ventures were implicitly and explicitly carried out under the protection of the U.S. Yet it was as if nobody noticed. The international system paid no attention, except to warn that there should not be a Kurdish state. There should not be a Kurdish state. There really should not be a Kurdish state. Yet there is a Kurdish state, and it will get along with Turkey. Contrast the Kurds with the Palestinians. Everyone is passionate for a Palestinian state.... But the Palestinians don't have a state, and it's not because Israel failed to give them one or negotiate one with them. The contrast is startling: no one wants a Kurdish state and yet there is one. Everyone wants a Palestinian state, people are willing to die for it and, what's worse, kill for it. Mahmud Abbas is president of the state, and there is an elected parliament with a designated prime minister and a "unity" government. But let's face it: the state of Palestine simply does not exist"

EU worried about Russia: "European Union policymakers have long sought peace, stability and prosperity on the bloc's borders and backed the vision of an EU surrounded by well-governed and well-intentioned neighbours. Unfortunately for the EU, however, today's European political reality is starkly different. With Russia in anti-Western mood over a mix of issues, including missiles, energy and the status of Russian minorities in the Baltics - as well as continuing uncertainty over Moscow's stance on the final status of Kosovo - the EU's hopes of stability on its frontiers are fading fast.

British Labour Party fading: " In the South West, where I was following the local results, the most striking trend was the virtual disappearance of the Labour Party. There are now 109 councils in England which either have only a single Labour councillor or - most of them - none at all. Four of these are in South or West Somerset; in a large number of our local Somerset wards, there was no Labour candidate. In England, Labour lost more than a quarter of its council seats; it is now in third place, 300 behind the Liberal Democrats, who are 3,000 behind the Conservatives. In Wales, Labour had its lowest share of the vote in almost 90 years

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 JOOOOS WIN AGAIN!



Sarkozy is Jewish! But you don't mention it, of course. You use a slightly more devious term: "Neo-Con". Neoconservatism is pretty much a spent force in American politics after the Iraq difficulties so when you keep blathering about the neocons, you are referring to the ethnic identity of most of them. A typical excerpt below:

Specifically, Royal says, "I am not for a Europe that allies with the U.S. I have never been, and will never. apologize to President Bush for the position of France on the issue of refusing to send troops to Iraq."

Sarkozy denies making any apologies. He says that, under his leadership, France would be an independent player that would not be afraid to tell U.S. presidents when they are wrong.

But that has not stopped Royal's backers from trying to chip away at Sarkozy's popular appeal -- most of which appears to be rooted in the appeal of his tough approach to domestic issues such as crime and immigration -- by referring to him as "an American neo-conservative with a French passport." and producing a 9O-page review of Sarkozy's links with U.S. right wingers that refers to the conservative candidate as a "French unit of Bush & Company."

And the Sarkozy victory seems to have sent the demented Right even further around the bend than usual. Flopping Aces has a big post on the many attempts to demonize Sarko. See also The Times of London on that. Election night report from Nidra Poller in France here

More on Sarko's win: "Despite all the warnings of imminent havoc from Segolene Royal, his run-off opponent, and the left, the French have given a solid mandate to Sarko the Hungarian immigrant's son to apply the radical medicine that he has been prescribing for the country's ills. Sarko has won about 53 percent of the vote and Royal 47 percent with a very high turnout of about 85 percent. In his victory speech Sarkozy said the vote was a clear mandate for radical change. "Together we are going to write a new page of history," he told supporters. "The page, I am sure, will be great and it will be beautiful." Sarko delivered a lyrical victory speech, voicing his love for "this great and beautiful nation which has given me everything." He promised to be "the president of all the French" and fulfill his pledges of immediate reform. "The French have chosen to break with the ideas, habits and behaviour of the past," he said. "I will restore the value of work, authority, merit and respect for the nation." He would also rid France of its habit of "repenting" for its past historical sins. "This repentance is a form of self-hatred," he said. He offered friendship to the United States"

That the freely elected President of the French Republic is a Jew gives me a strange new respect for France

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ELSEWHERE

There is an interesting roundup here of the ever-changing Democrat positions on Iraq. When you believe that there is no such thing as right and wrong, there are only the opinion polls to guide you. Just one minute has more.

A typically crooked public opinion poll from Newsweak about the hopeless state of the GOP is dissected here. Captain Ed pisses on it too.

"Diversity" training is a crock: "Some decades ago, the powers that be declared that employee diversity was a good thing, as desirable as double-digit profit margins. It's proving just as difficult to achieve. Companies try all sorts of things to attract and promote minorities and women. They hire organizational psychologists. They staff booths at diversity fairs. They host dim-sum brunches and salsa nights. The most popular--and expensive--approach is diversity training, or workshops to teach executives to embrace the benefits of a diverse staff. Too bad it doesn't work. A groundbreaking new study by three sociologists shows that diversity training has little to no effect on the racial and gender mix of a company's top ranks. Frank Dobbin of Harvard, Alexandra Kalev of the University of California, Berkeley, and Erin Kelly of the University of Minnesota sifted through decades of federal employment statistics provided by companies. Their analysis found no real change in the number of women and minority managers after companies began diversity training. That's right--none"

The good old U.N. again: "TEENAGE Timorese prostitutes gather just before dusk opposite a hotel on Dili's waterfront where drivers in United Nations vehicles can be seen picking them up and driving away. "It's disgusting . these people who have supposedly come here to help the Timorese are abusing these poor girls," says an Australian mechanic drinking in the hotel's second-floor bar, who observes the scene every night. Some of the 2000 UN police and civilian staff from more than 40 countries are openly violating what the UN promised would be a "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual abuse and misconduct in the deeply religious country, sources say. Expatriates say a dozen brothels have recently opened in Dili, and that vehicles with UN markings can be seen parked outside them most nights. One of the brothels is employing a dozen ethnic-Chinese prostitutes, expatriates say. A UN employee who asked not to be named told the Herald the UN is "turning a blind eye" to prostitution. UN employees often earn as much in one day as many Timorese families earn in a year. "The so-called zero tolerance policy includes prostitution but nothing is being done stop it," she said"

Scotland a-kilter: "Last week, Britons gave the ruling Labour Party a dressing down in local elections. But the vote went further: An independence-minded nationalist party surged in the Scottish parliament, overtaking Labour. It was as if Texas voters had punished the GOP by voting for a secessionist party. The vote in Scotland was seen as largely a rebuke of Britain's three-term prime minister, Tony Blair, and his support of the Iraq war. Still, the Scottish nationalists did nearly double their seats, putting the Scottish National Party one seat ahead of traditional leader Labour ƒ_" though the vote count is being investigated. These nationalists have the goal of independence clearly before them. Three hundred years in a marriage with the United Kingdom is enough, they say. What's in it for Scots with the spoils of the British Empire long gone? Why not divorce and take their North Sea oil and gas riches with them? Look around the region, these Scots say: Scotland could mimic the success of an Ireland or Norway. If small nations such as Latvia can be members of the European Union, why not the same for Scotland? Last year, tiny Montenegro in the Balkans voted in a referendum to part from Serbia."

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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Why Leftist Ideology Fails

Why isn't there a single example of a successful `People's Paradise'? How is it that the best of intentioned revolutionaries was never able to produce a single, sustainable and functional society? Why is it that societies that espouse economic equality and predicated on well meaning ideals, either secular or religious, have proved to be abject failures?

Leftists mistakenly believe that a collective `unity' of belief, thought and ideology empower a society. Their strength, they believe, are in the numbers of those who share their ideologies. Leftist believe that they have every right to design a society based on what they believe is in the best interest of that society. They also believe that an unwillingness to conform to their ideals, poses a threat, and quite possibly, a danger.

For example, those state that embrace various leftist ideologies, take a dim view of anyone or group that might demand lower taxes, or changes in the state welfare benefits. Millions of Frenchmen turned out to protest an employers right to fire them from their jobs- even if their job performance was sub par. The upcoming French election is no small measure revolves around that nation's stagnant economy and what painful changes will be needed to revive and repair that economy from the deep damage socialism has inflicted. Where the Socialist Segolene Royal and right of center candidate Nikolas Sarkoszy differ is in the method and approach to change, not on the need for change.

Leftists naturally see themselves as `progressive.' They believe their way of viewing the world is an improvement over the `old way.' The idea of hard work for greater personal gain an dsatisfaction, for example, is passe, and in their eyes, destructive, racist and representative of `colonialist' thought. Personal gain is selfish and narcissistic.

It is interesting to note how `progressives' have aligned themselves with Hollywood types- some of the most narcissistic and self centered group of people on the planet. These same Hollywood types, venerated by leftists, are also among the most removed from the real world, believing themselves to be a kind of aristocracy, entitled to material things that only they are entitled. There is much truth to the old saying. `You are known by the company you keep.' The `progressives' have made clear their attachment to the phony aristocracy of Hollywood trumps the relationship they might have with the rest of us, `the little people.'

Of course, the attachment of the left to Hollywood pales is no more than simple hypocrisy. The attachment the left has to every dysfunctional, racist and bigoted regime and leader is indicative of a far more dangerous pathology. When leftists speak of `freedom' and `progressiveness,' they do so standing on the corpses of millions, as they toast the leaders of regimes that have authored the slaughter of millions. As long as the leftist is feted and honored, the sins of the devil himself can be washed away.

It is the progressives that want to present their own versions of history, religion and ideologies- versions that only serve to endorse their views and their hypocrisies. Disagree with them and the fierce and frenzied wrath of the ideologues descends. No room for anything but group think.

In reality, the `progressives' are actually regressive. It is because of their single minded, lockstep thinking that we find ourselves in some of the messes that have engulfed us. They believe in the `my way or the highway' kind of thinking. Disagree with them and the world is coming to an end. The vitriol and visceral hatred directed of the current administration is a good example. No difference of opinion will be tolerated. Disagree and the well oiled machine of personal destruction comes out. The shameful display of that truth was evident during the confirmation hearings of Samuel Alito. It mattered little that Quran desecration story was untrue. The vitriol was released nonetheless.

Over the decades, tens, if not hundreds of millions have died because of `my way or the highway' ideologies. Disagree with the powers that be or want to be, and there are calls of, "Death to." Disagree loud enough and you are marked for death. We all got a taste of that as the cartoon riots unfolded. It was `my way or the highway' unleashed on democratic societies. It was my way or the highway in the Soviet Union, Cambodia, Vietnam and in regimes in the Middle East. Antisemitism, virtually unknown in Venezuela, has reappeared simultaneously with the advent of Hugo Chavez.

`My way or the highway' is a nothing more than a regression to a more barbaric time, when disputes, disagreements and different ideas were settled only when blood was spilled. That is a derivative of `my way or the highway.' Mankind evolved and advanced when societies came to tolerate those with different ideas and beliefs. We advanced because we allowed each of us to exercise the freedom and the opportunity to achieve whatever it was we were capable of, in any endeavor we chose. No one told us what to do, what to think or what to invent.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

A good speech from Fred Thompson here. Fred is my nomineee for the next U.S. President. All the other GOP candidates are very stale.

Army Guard reaches 350,000-member goal ahead of schedule: "The Army National Guard reached its congressionally authorized end strength of 350,000 Citizen-Soldiers on March 30, six months earlier than originally projected, Army Guard officials have reported. "The strength of the Guard has been the amazing levels of retention among members of deployed units, surpassing all expectations," said Lt. Col. Diana Craun, the Army Guard's deputy chief for strength maintenance. "Retention is highest among units that have returned from deployments, and retention is an essential element in end strength," she added. It is the first time that the Army Guard has been at full strength since 1999, Craun said. Officials had projected that the Army Guard would reach 350,000 troops by Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year." [This gives the lie to all the attempts by the Leftist media to portray the army as struggling]

Plan for a second holocaust: "The extermination of Jews is Allah's will and is for the benefit of all humanity, according to an article in the Hamas paper, Al-Risalah. The author of the article, Kan'an Ubayd, explains that the suicide operations carried out by Hamas are being committed solely to fulfill Allah's wishes. Furthermore, Allah demanded this action, because "the extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds." The killing of innocent Jews by terrorist attacks is portrayed as Allah's plan for the benefit of humanity."

Demonic Muslims: "American soldiers discovered a girls' school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday. The plot at the Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya was a "sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said. The military suspects the plot was the work of al Qaeda, because of its nature and sophistication, Caldwell said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer."

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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More Google strangeness

I was looking at this old article by Tom Wolfe that appeared on "Wicked Dox" a few days ago. I decided to see where else it was available on the internet. The answer varied a lot according to which search term is used. If I used the string "adroitly papering over the fact that the Nazis" -- which is a phrase found well into the body of the article -- I found no full copies of the article available anywhere. If however I used the string "Did a single historian mention that America now dominates the world" -- which is from the beginning of the article -- I found various full copies of the article (e.g. here).

So what are we to conclude from that? I think Google must be working on the assumption that they only need to store the first bit of a long article to be able to retrieve references to it. So the Lesson is? Break your writings up into lots of small documents, I guess. Good for bloggers if for no-one else!

I usually don't use a string from early in the article if I am searching for it -- as your search results get cluttered up with a whole lot of partial quotations from the article that way. A search for text occurring well into the body of the article is much more likely to lead you straight to a full copy of the article. But I guess I will have to change my ways in future.

I think Google should announce how much of a given article they are likely to store but I guess I am pissing into the wind with that hope. How they hope to store all the world's books when they cannot store what is already on the internet quite escapes me. The only things they seem to store comprehensively are blogs -- rather strangely. I am the last one to bad-mouth blogs but they are hardly the last word in information. I can think of many that are the last word in crap.

The results of Google searches vary from day to day and from hour to hour so whether anyone else gets the same results as I did above remains to be seen, of course. They did not have the Wicked Dox article at all when I searched but seeing that it is on a blog, they should pick it up fairly quickly. Google make us bloggers into the elite of the internet so perhaps I should not criticize them at all! It seems a pity that they are such a poor guide to the net, though. And the biggest pity is that most people don't realize that.

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ELSEWHERE

The U.S. Army brass seems to have climbed down from their opposition to military bloggers.

Doug Ross has a good post contrasting Democrat and Republican standards of behavior. Where President Bush consistently behaves like the Christian gentleman that he is, the Democrats usually display no scruples at all. Like the Jihadis, they see decency as a sign of weakness. I particularly liked Doug's details about voting abuses.

John Bolton's speech on America's unprincipled bureaucracy is not to be missed.

Bill Clinton has warned about the dangers facing the United States. They are apparently "worldwide famine" and "obesity" (!!!). (H/T Newsbuckit)

With Unemployment Rate Lower Than the 1990's... Media Spins Negative: "Today's New York Times' headline: "Economy Adds Fewer Jobs Than Expected". You'd think the employment situation was horrible from this and otherheadlines this morning. However... The current unemployment rate stands at 4.5%- over 1 full point lower than the 5.7% average during the 1990's. How many people do you suppose have heard that fact?"

Ace has a very sarcastic comment on a pathetic attempt by the "L.A. Times" to smear Fred Thompson. Patterico also has some good comments on the matter.

Sharia courts already operating in Britain: "Muslim radicals have established their own draconian court systems in Britain. Controversial Sharia courts have been set up in major towns and cities to impose Islamic law and enable Muslims to shun the legitimate British legal system. Last night religious leaders and politicians expressed outrage that Sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in our society. Critics insisted that the Govern-ment is allowing a two-tier legal system to flourish in the name of political correctness and that the authority of UK justice is being undermined. The Daily Express can reveal that one of the controversial courts has been set up in the home town of the 7/7 London bombings ringleader. The Dewsbury court is called the Sharee Council - another term for Sharia - and operates as a Muslim judiciary making decisions by which attendees must abide. Non-Muslims are excluded from the secretive court which is registered as a charity to receive British tax benefits. Although the court has no official legal standing, scales of justice adorn a sign outside a former pub building which has been converted by the Islamic Institute of Great Britain."

Chutzpah: "The head of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, is complaining about Nigerian Anglican bishops coming to Virginia this weekend to formally install the head of the conservative breakaway denomination in this country. Here's what she said: "Such action would violate the ancient customs of the church." I kid you not. The female head of a church with a practicing homosexual bishop planning to "marry" his lover, a church that could accept into seminary the adulterous homosexual governor of New Jersey, a church that embraces splitting open babies' skulls and vacuuming their brains out, is complaining about violating ancient customs? Wow."

A VERY flashy black: "Frederick Chiluba, the former President of Zambia, has been found guilty by a British High Court judge of plundering 23 million pounds from his people. He used the stolen money to indulge his taste for clothes, jewellery, cars, luxury homes and handmade high-heeled shoes to boost his 5ft height. His people, meanwhile, were struggling to live on an average of 50 pence a day. Chiluba spent at least 600,000 pounds on designer clothes bearing his FJT monogram, representing his names Frederick Jacob Titus, Mr Justice Peter Smith said after a two-year legal battle and a four-month trial. "The most telling example of corruption," he said, "was the clothing acquired by FJT". The former President "had a worldwide reputation as being a smart and expensive dresser. He had his own stylish suits with his initials, FJT, monogrammed on them, a large number of specially made signature shoes and thousands of monogrammed shirts." During Chiluba's ten years in office, from 1991 to 2001, 600,000 pounds was spent at Basile, an exclusive Swiss clothes shop, all of which was stolen from the republic."

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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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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