Human evolution speeding up

Research shows that different human groups are becoming LESS alike -- and that it has been happening in relatively recent times

The world may feel more and more like a global village, but its residents are increasingly genetically diverse thanks to the rapidly accelerating pace of human evolution, a study said Monday. Geneticists say the huge explosion in our numbers in the past 40,000 years, since Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa to other continents, has resulted in a much faster pace of evolution compared to the previous six million years.

The pace of change has increased 100-fold in modern times compared to our distant past, and most notably since the Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, and has led to increasing diversification between the races. "We are more different genetically from people living 5,000 years ago than they were different from Neanderthals," said John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who collaborated on the study.

The findings are based on analysis of data from an international genomics project. A team of scientists examined DNA from 270 individuals in four ethnically different populations to see how genetic variations or SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) evolved over time. Contrary to conventional wisdom, which holds that human evolution has slowed to a crawl or even stopped in modern humans, the researchers' analysis suggested that the process of natural selection has sped up. "Rapid population growth has been coupled with vast changes in cultures and ecology, creating new opportunities for adaptation," the authors wrote in the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The past 10,000 years have seen rapid skeletal and dental evolution in human populations, as well as the appearance of many new genetic responses to diet and disease."

Human migrations into new European and Asian environments created selective pressures favoring less skin pigmentation (so more sunlight could be absorbed through the skin to make Vitamin D), adaptation to cold weather and dietary changes.

One example of a genetic adaptation to human culture involves the gene that makes the milk-digesting enzyme lactase. The gene normally stops activity about the time a person becomes a teenager, but northern Europeans developed a variation of the gene that allowed them to drink milk their whole lives -- a relatively new adaptation that is directly tied to the introduction of domestic farming and use of milk as an agricultural product.

"Human races are evolving away from each other," said Henry Harpending, an anthropology professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "Genes are evolving fast in Europe, Asia and Africa, but almost all of these are unique to their continent of origin. We are getting less alike, not merging into a single, mixed humanity." He said that is happening because humans dispersed from Africa to other regions 40,000 years ago and "there has not been much flow of genes between the regions since then."

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California hands a huge debt to its children: "The state of California is not funding a mountainous $48 billion tab for medical benefits promised to future government retirees, a bill that ranked as the second largest in the nation last year. The escalating liability, which accounting rules now require listing on the balance sheet, would hurt the state's debt rating and consequently raise the cost of borrowing if it goes unaddressed. Equally as important, since tax revenues are not expected to cover it, taxpayers will be forced to sacrifice services or sell bonds at ever-higher interest rates to accommodate the obligation. "That $48 billion is quite a lot. The substantial annual increases (to fund the benefits) the states are facing . is really stunning," said Katherine Barrett, co-author of a ground-breaking report, released Tuesday, from the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts' Center on the States."

S. Korean conservative's landslide win: "Conservative Lee Myung-bak, offering South Koreans a CEO-style presidency after a decade of Left-liberal occupation of the Blue House, scored a landslide victory in yesterday's presidential election. With 40 per cent of the vote counted last night, Mr Lee, representing the Grand National Party, had almost 47 per cent, while his main opponent Chung Dong-young, aligned with the current left-wing administration, had 28per cent. Exit polls had suggested Mr Lee, who turned 66 yesterday, could become the first winner to secure an endorsement of more than 50 per cent since direct presidential election was adopted 20 years ago. Mr Lee claimed victory in a nationally televised news conference, after Mr Chung, formerly unification minister under the outgoing President Roh Moo-hyun, conceded defeat. "Today, the people gave me absolute support," Mr Lee said. "I'm well aware of the people's wishes. I will serve the people in a very humble way. According to the people's wishes, I will save the nation's economy that faces a crisis." A spokesman for Mr Roh acknowledged the victory late last night and said the election had been fairly conducted."

Even They Can't Cover Up The Fraud: "How ragingly bad must the fraud be if even the United Nations can't hide it from an internal investigation? A UN group has determined that there is widespread, pervasive fraud in the UN's peacekeeping operations. The fraud they admit to runs into hundreds of millions of dollars (and heading north rapidly) and 10 UN procurement officials have been charged with offenses so far. And they are not even finished investigating yet."

Hamas Seeks Truce Talks With Israel: "Gaza's embattled Hamas leaders are seeking a cease-fire after months of Israeli attacks and sanctions, going so far as to make an unprecedented appeal through the Israeli media, a Hamas official confirmed Wednesday. The overture, which the Hamas leader made Tuesday through an Israeli reporter, followed an especially bloody day in which the Israeli air force killed 12 militants, including a top commander. Despite calls for a cease-fire within his Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to continue targeting the leaders of militant groups who fire rockets into southern Israel almost daily."

Rich Pay More Taxes Since Bush Elected Contrary to Media Meme: "You know all that nonsense the media have been spewing that the Bush tax cuts caused the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer? Well, the Internal Revenue Service and the Congressional Budget Office have published tax and income numbers for 2005, and the press couldn't be any more wrong. In fact, it's almost as if the media get their data from Democrat presidential candidates, and disseminate it without the slightest effort whatsover to vet or verify its veracity.... part of the news is that the richest 1% paid about 39% of all income taxes that year. The richest 5% paid a tad less than 60%, and the richest 10% paid 70%. These tax shares are all up substantially since 1990, and even somewhat since 2000. Meanwhile, Americans with an income below the median -- half of all households -- paid a mere 3% of all income taxes in 2005."

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

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 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 usual Democrat concern for the truth

In his town-hall meeting last Wednesday night, Edwards sang the refrain he has made the core of his big-government populist campaign: Big-business controls Washington and blocks crucial regulations and welfare programs, and John Edwards is the only man who can take it on. And the crowd loved it.

For all the free passes Barack Obama has received from the media, he's never gotten away with being as demonstrably wrong on the facts as John Edwards is nearly every time he sounds this theme. The truth of the matter is an awkward one for Edwards and his fans: the very big businesses they vilify support the very big-government policies they advocate.

In Thursday's debates, when asked about federal curbs on greenhouse gases to battle global warming, Edwards said: "first of all, we need to recognize what the obstacles are to the change that everyone believes is necessary. And the obstacles are oil companies, power companies, all those entrenched interests that stand between America and the change that it needs."

Democrats in the crowd nodded their heads at this, and reporters in the press room didn't bat an eye. That sounds natural to them: big oil and big energy oppose regulation of fuel and power, right?

Well, not Duke Energy whose CEO, Paul Anderson, has been calling for a tax on carbon dioxide for nearly three years.

Is there any more "entrenched interest" than General Electric, which every year since 1998 has spent more on lobbying than any other company in America? Hardly an "obstacle" to Edwards's favored policies, GE's Jeff Immelt on January 22, 2007, joined CEOs from Alcoa, DuPont, and other corporate titans to call for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

And oh yeah, one former big power company (the biggest in the world, at the time), lobbied two White Houses for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, pointing out in one e-mail, "This agreement will be good for Enron stock!" I could go on, but you get the point.

The same is true of health care. Edwards said Thursday that "corporate power and greed have literally taken over the government, and we need a president who's willing to take these powers on. It is the only way we're going to . have universal health care." Well, you could take them on, but that hardly seems necessary considering that many of the biggest corporations are firmly behind the big government health care plans that Edwards and the Democrats are offering.

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A takedown of Lefty blogger David Niewert (aka "Orcinus") here. I had some fun with him a few years ago. Also here.



Fred Thompson well-received in Iowa: "Haus was understandably upbeat, especially considering David Yepsen's column about Thompson today. Haus tells me Thompson has been received quite well: “I think, just based on the reception we’ve seen in the last 24 hours, it’s been nothing short of spectacular." “... It’s hoots and hollers and 'hell yeas' from the back of the room. It’s almost Revivalesque. It’s stuff we’re not used to in Iowa," says Haus. He also tells me he's also surprised by the number of folks who are undecided, and the number of folks who are unhappy with the candidates they are currently supporting.

A Brigadier and a soldier: "The British Forces commander in Afghanistan played a personal role in the recapture of Musa Qala, the Taleban-controlled town in the north of Helmand province. Brigadier Andrew Mackay, who commands 6,000 troops of 52 Brigade, walked for nearly a mile across no man's land to reach the town as the battle raged. He then took up position on Roshan Hill, which overlooks Musa Qala. The Taleban were driven from the town by a combination of American, British and Afghan troops, using a plan devised by Brigadier Mackay and his staff, called Operation Ma, which means "snake" in Pashtun. The 50-year-old brigadier, who would normally have been expected to stay well clear of the frontline action, flew by helicopter to the area around Musa Qala and walked the last stage. He spent ten days supervising the attack on Musa Qala from his headquarters, "just a hole in the ground", on Roshan Hill, about 700 yards from the fighting."

A myth about consumer spending: "Every year, and especially during holiday-shopping season, we hear the familiar refrain: 'What the consumer does is the most important thing.' ... 'If shoppers stop spending, we're in big trouble.' ... 'Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy.' ... These Keynesian principles have become ingrained conventional myths. But they're not true. Many factors are far more significant than consumer spending in stimulating the economy: business spending on capital goods, tax cuts, lower interest rates, and productivity."

Handling the specter of victory in Iraq: "A specter is haunting the Democratic Party. The long-awaited defeat of American forces in Iraq, on which so many critics of this administration have built their fondest hopes, seems to have been delayed again and - unsettling thought - may not even materialize. Even the dreaded word, Victory, is being whispered. Who would have thought it? Besides, of course, that dwindling minority of Americans who never gave up on the valor of America's armed forces - and the flexibility of their commanders, including their much-despised commander-in-chief."

A happy day: "Border checks between the former communist states of eastern Europe and their Western neighbours will end on Friday, a move potent with symbolism for those who lived behind the Iron Curtain and were then made to feel like "second-class citizens" in a united Europe. "We have been dismantling our own Berlin Wall stage by stage. The first stage was in 1989, and the second will be in December," proclaimed Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek during a recent visit to Dresden to prepare for his country's entry into the Schengen zone. The Czech Republic, along with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the three Baltic states and Slovenia, as well as Malta, will this week join the 15 countries in the zone where passport checks have disappeared."

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

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 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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My telecommunications woes: Update

Some readers may vaguely recall that I have been having something of a "war" with Telstra/Bigpond (Australia's largest provider of telecommunication services) over the execrable services that they provide. As part of trying to get some sort of civilized and intelligent response fom them, I have been using their own "Bigblog" blogging facility to post criticisms of them. BigBlog was always a primitive affair but I have just found out that it is even more primitive than anyone could have imagined. They turn it off at night! That's right: It is only available during Australian daylight hours! Amazing that Australia's largest provider of internet services cannot keep its own blogs up and running 24 hours a day -- but that is the reality, folks. I did not of course expect such bloody-mindedness but repeated attempts by me to log on late at night were met with failure so I now know from experience what the reality is.

Now that I have discovered that, I have of course moved camp and am now blogging about Telstra/Bigpond on blogspot. See here from now on. I have transferred to there the more recent posts on the BigBlog site.

And in this case competition does not seem to be much of an answer to problems. When I encountered difficulties with my Telstra cellphone I thought that buying a second cellphone connected to Optus (Australia's second-largest telecommunications firm) might be a partial solution. But you can see how well that worked out here.

The only thing that really moves these oligopolists is publicity so if anyone reading this is inclined to link on their own site to the two sites I have mentioned above, I would be obliged. The more links the sites get the further they will move up the Google page-rankings and the more they will embarrass the behemoths concerned.

Australia does have an official telecommunications watchdog, the TIO (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman) and they do sometimes help with problems but they are bureaucrats so they give up easily and do their best to wash their hands of matters. The main aim of all bureaucracies is to maximize their funding and minimize their workload and the TIO seems to be no exception to that.

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Why are civilized countries still supporting the UN and its corruption?

The UNICEF Photo of the Year has been announced, and I couldn't possibly think of something more appropriate. Recall that the agency has tasked itself with-and is held responsible for-the well-being of children around the world. Check out how UNICEF decides to illustrate this calling:



The photograph shot by U.S. freelance photographer Stephanie Sinclair shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan who could not be more opposite. The groom, Mohammed, looks much older than his 40 years. The bride, Ghulam, is still a child; she just turned 11. Stephanie Sinclair works as a freelance photographer based in Beirut, Lebanon

What better way to care for the well-being of children than by celebrating the forced marriage of an 11-year-old girl to a man over 30 years her senior, right?

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The British government data bungles multiply: "The British Government has suffered new embarrassment over missing data after it revealed one of its contractors had lost the details of 3 million learner drivers. The mistake came just weeks after Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Government admitted it had lost computer discs containing the names and bank account details of 25 million people, exposing nearly half the population to possible fraud and identity theft. The opposition Conservatives accused the Government of incompetence over the data loss, the latest in a series of mishaps that have caused the popularity of Mr Brown's six-month-old team to plunge. Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly told Parliament a private contractor reported in May that a hard disc drive had gone missing from a facility in Iowa in the US. It contained the names, addresses and other details of more than three million candidates for a theory test taken by learner drivers in Britain. The disc drive did not contain any bank account or credit card details, Ms Kelly said. She also revealed that two discs containing the details of 7500 vehicles and the names and addresses of their owners had been lost in transit." [It is events like this that make many people oppose national ID cards]

Publicity works: "Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pardoned a teenage girl sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes after being gang raped, Al Jazirah newspaper reported. The ruling against the 19-year-old girl in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom had attracted widespread international condemnation, including from human rights groups and the White House. The Arabic language daily said it had been informed of the royal pardon from its own unidentified sources. The girl, who was 18 at the time she was raped, was attacked at knifepoint by seven men after she was found in a car with a male companion who was not a relative, in breach of strict Saudi law. In October 2006, a judge sentenced her to 90 lashes for being with the man -- a taboo in the conservative Muslim kingdom which imposes segregation of the sexes. She appealed against the sentence but despite her ordeal the court ruled that her punishment should be increased to 200 lashes and a six-month jail term."

French police finally do something other than run away: "An attempt to build a Christmas encampment for the homeless on the banks of the river Seine was swept away by police before the startled eyes of tourists at the weekend. A homelessness action group, which generated worldwide attention a year ago by pitching an encampment of red tents in the centre of Paris, attempted an even more spectacular coup on Saturday morning. Scores of red, 'two second,' all-terrain tents were erected along the quays of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Notre Dame cathedral. As tourists looked on, police moved in en masse -- using tear gas at one stage -- to sweep away the homeless people and their supporters."

The "Toxic Texan": "In the past third of a century, the American economy has swollen by 150 per cent, automobile traffic has increased by 143 per cent, and energy consumption has grown 45 per cent. During this same period, air pollutants have declined by 29 per cent, toxic emissions by 48.5 per cent, sulphur dioxide levels by 65.3 per cent, and airborne lead by 97.3 per cent. Despite signing on to Kyoto, European greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 2001, whereas America's emissions have fallen by nearly one per cent, despite the Toxic Texan's best efforts to destroy the planet."

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

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 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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Father Coughlin was a Leftist

A little bit of American history you won't read in your history textbooks

As the Great Depression dragged toward the end of its first decade in 1938, Father Charles Coughlin released the latest issue of his newspaper Social Justice. It reprinted that most notorious and persistent of anti-Semitic tracts, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

Coughlin's decision to disseminate the spurious conspiracy tale to his millions of followers was not just the same old Jew-hatred, even if part of his financing came from Henry Ford. It marked Coughlin's transformation from an ardent New Dealer, who had coined the phrase "Roosevelt or Ruin," to a divisive demagogue.

The through-line from Coughlin the social democrat to Coughlin the biased provocateur was populism. The same ideology that had led him earlier in his public career to attack corporate power and unmediated capitalism, to champion labor unions and activist government, also enabled him to search for a scapegoat.

Source

The above was written by a modern-day Leftist and so pretends that antisemitism was a departure from the Leftist "New Deal" ideas of FDR but we see quite to the contrary here.

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Readers of EDUCATION WATCH should get a pleasant surprise now that Mike Pechar is also posting there. His style is notably lighter than mine.

Astounding: A major Australian bank is offering university scholarships to students who want to study "the development of Shariah compliant financial products and services". The scholarship is called the "Sheikh Fehmi El-Imam Scholarship". Sharia law of course forbids the charging of interest. I would like to see how long the bank lasts if it adopts that principle!

The thug behind Kwanzaa: "Each year, with the onset of Christmas, we are treated to another gauzy, fluff piece about how great Kwanzaa is by yet another PC spewing newspaper columnist. This year, among many others, the Houston Chronicle gets in the act with a piece by Leslie Casimir titled "Learning about Kwanzaa from the holiday's creator." This one, though, is a bit off the usual track of the how-great-Kwanzaa-is theme because this particular piece celebrates the inventor of the faux holiday, Maulana Karenga, himself. So, we've gone from merely celebrating this manufactured holiday to making a hero of the rapist, race monger and a violent thug who created it! Karenga, as it happens, has a long criminal record, indeed. In 1971 Everett served time in jail for assault. By then Everett had changed his name to Maulana Ron Karenga and began to affect a pseudo African costume and act the part of a native African. It wasn't mere assault he was convicted of, either. It was sexual assault and torture perpetrated against some of his female followers. The L.A. Times then reported that he placed a hot soldering iron in one woman's mouth and used a vise to crush another's toe.... Happy Kwanzaa, indeed!

Arrogant labor unions lose: "After nearly a four-year delay, a Florida worker has prompted an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to strike down a nationwide policy of a major international union that requires employees to object annually to prevent union officials from spending their compulsory union dues for political activities. The policy is a pervasive tactic used by union officials to prevent dissenting employees from reclaiming forced union dues used to promote political causes they oppose."

`Political art' that treats the public like mugs: "An art installation in New York featuring fake criminal mugshots of Bush and Cheney is meant to be cutting edge. In fact it is cynically conformist.... The supposedly controversial, polemical and outrageous Line Up exhibit has been branded `political attack art'. Yet what is striking is just how ordinary and simple the prints are. The New York Public Library describes Multiple Interpretations as showcasing prints by `some of the most intriguing and compelling artists active today'. Yet as David Durant points out on his `Heretical Librarian' blog: `Wow, if this kind of infantile, dishonest agitprop is what "the most intriguing and compelling artists active today" are doing, then I'd really hate to see what the crappy and unimaginative artists are up to.'"

Olmert government stupidity: "Palestinian militants, freed in past prisoner releases by Israel, were responsible for at least 30 terror attacks which claimed the ives of 177 Israelis, according to a study published yesterday by Almagor, an organization representing the victims of Palestinian terrorism. The report's publication came in response to yesterday's release of 429 Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons. According to the report, 6,912 militants were released between the years 1993 and 1999, and nearly 80 percent of them returned to terrorist activity."

On Wal-Mart et al. in the recent Northwestern deluge: "In cases of extreme weather and natural disasters, some of the nation's largest retailers now behave like municipalities -- sometimes better. Retailers have created specialized divisions -- or hired outside firms -- to gird for emergencies. The goal: to speed recovery for customers, employees and ultimately sales. No one is clear how many retailers operate internal emergency units, but the practice is now standard among the biggest players, including Target Corp. and Lowe's Cos. Inc. This past week, Wal-Mart donated a 40-foot tanker of potable water to Vernonia, [Oregon,] while up north Home Depot opened its still-waterlogged Chehalis store for the town's Chamber of Commerce to pick up face masks and cleaning supplies free of charge. Such coordination became clear during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when local governments praised initial responses from retailers as more expedient than those of the Federal Emergency Management Agency."

What would Adam Smith say? "The role of government in the United States and other western democracies has expanded dramatically over the last century. Compared to its pre-twentieth century functions, government has taken on new and vast roles, including old-age pensions, government-provided health care, and a host of other programs that typically comprise a modern welfare state. What would Adam Smith, the eighteenth-century Scottish moral philosopher, say about the expanded role of our modern government? For Smith, the ideal functions of government were few and well defined."

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

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 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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JAG Needs Refocus

The military's judge advocate general corps of lawyers' primary job is to interpret and help enforce the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ is the military's parallel but carefully customized legal code, meant to provide the disciplinary basis necessary to meet military missions while being true to the U.S.'s civilian laws....

JAG officers, especially without combat experience, are often at heart civilian lawyers in uniform. The often antagonistic attitudes toward U.S. and military policies that pervade our campuses and law schools affect their judgments, and frequently prevail. Instead of seeing themselves as enablers of the nation's and military's mission, JAG's often try to undermine them. That said, the Boston Globe reports:

The administration has proposed a regulation requiring "coordination" with politically appointed Pentagon lawyers before any member of the Judge Advocate General corps - the military's 4,000-member uniformed legal force - can be promoted.

The tone of the Boston Globe's report, and the sources it chooses to present, is that,

The former JAG officers say the regulation would end the uniformed lawyers' role as a check-and-balance on presidential power.

Flash to Boston Globe and to the liberal former JAG officers quoted: JAG does not exist to be "a check-and-balance on presidential power." JAG exists to carry out and enable the military's missions and discipline. The president is the civilian authority over the military, as well as Commander in Chief. It's not until the end of the Globe article that we get to the meat of the matter. JAG officers are there to offer legal opinions, but not to contradict or seek to override their constitutional civilian superiors.

Responding to the conflicts, in 2004 Congress enacted a law forbidding Defense Department employees from interfering with the ability of JAGs to "give independent legal advice" directly to military leaders. But when President Bush signed the law, he issued a signing statement decreeing that the legal opinions of his political appointees would still "bind" the JAGs.

I'm not sure whether this proposal is best, or will fly. But, it's still an important shot across the bow of runamock JAG's.

More here

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There is an interesting catalog here of the bogus disaster stories that the media have been using to drown out the good news from Iraq. And there is a list of the top 10 media myths about the economy here

US, British & Germans Don't Trust Their MSM: "In the United States, Britain and Germany, only around 29% of those interviewed thought their media did a good job in reporting news accurately. This reflects favorably on the strong attachment to truth of Americans, the British and Germans, and most West Europeans. But, at the same time, reflects the extent to which skepticism and cynicism and outright disdain of the reliability of MSM, across the political spectrum, has permeated Western publics. The narrow incestuous worldview of media elites, coupled with repeated evidenced instances of absurdly unprofessional conduct, is widely recognized, and, as witnessed by the steady drain away of their audiences, is an unsustainable business practice."

Dept. of State is a lying Leftist organization: "The State Department's intention to remove North Korea from a list of countries that support terrorism is criticized in a newly released nonpartisan congressional report that cited "reputable" sources saying the communist regime of Kim Jong Il has supported Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, both of which have long been on America's list of terror groups. Didn't Israel just take out a nuclear bomb making factory that North Korea helped build..."

Democrat-led Michigan's economy offers fewer jobs than Iraq's: The headline in the Detroit News today was startling: "Hundreds line up for shot at Iraq jobs." But then again, Michigan's unemployment rate is startling: 7.7%. That's the highest in the land and considerably higher than the rate of the next-highest state, Mississippi, at 6.1%. "I wouldn't say it's a last resort, but it's looking very attractive. If we don't make some serious decisions, we're going to lose our house," said Tony Woodward, 38, of Port Huron. "There are no jobs in Michigan. I just don't see how there's a future here in Michigan." The jobs are dangerous. So far, 800 civilians working for the U.S. military died in Iraq. Marceilos Davis, 27, of Detroit said, "That's a no-brainer. From the neighborhood I live in, it's no different than Iraq. I'm not scared." She has a point. And while there is only so much a government can do for the economy, Jennifer Granholm has not delivered on the promise of jobs that got her elected governor five years ago."

Author of NIE report believes CIA's Priority should be 'Diversity': "The Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, who was integral to the findings of that report and its publication last week addressed the need to reform our intelligence agencies: "The 500-day plan enters almost immediately into a discussion of the vital importance of "Equal Opportunity and Diversity." It offers high praise for the intelligence community's Diversity Strategy Implementation Workshop" Perhaps Mr. Kerr is ignorant of the case of Nada Prouty , a 37-year old illegal alien from Lebanon who was hired by the FBI from her waitress job at a restaurant owned by her brother-in-law who is now on the lam for financially supporting Hezbollah. Prouty was hired under such a "diversity plan". She was later transferred and promoted to the CIA, despite no previous espionage experience, where she was discovered to have illegally accessed CIA files in a bid to discover what information the CIA possessed about Hezbollah. Donald Kerr is seemingly oblivious to the absurdity of his touting diversity when the CIA was just penetrated by a "diversity" hire."

Toyota expands while GM contracts: "Japanese car giant Toyota Motor Corp. plans to raise its global output to near 10 million units next year, out-distancing its rival General Motors Corp. of the United States, a news report said Sunday. Toyota now expects its group's global production to expand to some 9.9 million vehicles in 2008, about 500,000 units more than the projection for the current year, the Nikkei newspaper said. Toyota projects its global output for this year will climb by four percent year on year to 9.42 million cars, while General Motors earlier this month announced a production forecast of a one percent gain to 9.26 million units. While Toyota is expanding its overseas production facilities, GM has been laying off workers and shuttering factories to try to reverse losses that hit two billion US dollars last year." [Toyota cars are brilliant. I drive one myself]

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

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 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 GERMAN VERSUS THE U.S. REACTION TO THE DEPRESSION

Further to my post yesterday, a reader writes:

Your article leaves out one very salient fact: Due to the French insistence on outlandish reparations after WWI, the Germans were saddled with unpayable debt which resulted in a huge inflation during the 20's and an economic downturn. The US prospered in the 20's (as did most of the rest of the western world) and therefore entered the 30's prosperous and contented.

Germany therefore had really two decades of economic depression versus the one suffered by the rest of the world. The German people, after losing a war were turned from being economically well off to being ravaged by lousy economic conditions for two decades. Even the best of men may turn the wrong way under those circumstances.

I have always felt that France was the most responsible nation for the German onslaught in Europe. Before Napoleon, Germany was a mix of different states which generally got along with their neighbors. When Napoleon went on his rampages he generally had to cross German territory to reach his goal. In those days most armies lived a great deal off the land and this was German land.

My parents immigrated from Germany in the 20's and I can honestly state that I never heard a harsh world about Jews from them or their German born friends. But to a person, they basically hated the French. When I grew up and learned the history of the two nations I began to understand why.

The above certainly reminds us of one important factor in explaining the rise of German Nazism. There were of course various factors involved -- including the personal political genius of Hitler himself. My purpose yesterday was simply to point out how a basic theme in conservative thinking was an important part of the total explanation.

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ELSEWHERE

Further to my comments on the misleading account of black IQ by Malcolm Gladwell, it seems that Jonah Goldberg has taken an interest in the matter too. It seems that someone has even got Gladwell to do a grudging retraction of one of his slurs. See here

The WSJ is now a great Australian newspaper: "News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has finally achieved his long-held ambition of owning The Wall Street Journal, one of the world's great newspapers, and ending more than 100 years of ownership by the Bancroft family. Confirmation of Mr Murdoch's successful $US5.2 billion takeover of the Journal's owner, Dow Jones & Co, came after an historic, 30-minute shareholder meeting and vote at New York's Marriott Hotel, which is appropriately located just near Wall Street on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Just under 60.3 per cent of Dow Jones investors approved the merger, with 78 per cent of common shares and 54 per cent of super-voting shares - mostly held by the divided Bancroft family - allocated in favour of the deal. Later, standing on a makeshift stage made out of four boxes of copying paper at Dow Jones's head office, Mr Murdoch - flanked by two trusted Australian lieutenants, new Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton and new WSJ publisher Robert Thomson - reassured journalists about the company's future."

Bible realistic: "The ten Plagues of Egypt recounted in the Bible and which caused Pharaoh to let the Israelite slaves go free were nothing more than natural "population imbalances" caused by environmental factors, a leading scientist has claimed.... The "rivers of blood" could have been caused by heavy rainfall on baked soil, leading to sediment-rich water flowing into the Nile from tributaries where the underlying soil and rocks are red. Egyptians often spoke of the "red lands" surrounding the fertile, "black lands" they occupied. The sediments would also have killed the fish, as described in the Bible, he says. The plague of frogs could have been migrating frogs, or the sudden appearance of the froglike Spadefoot toads from hiding places in damp undersoil after a sudden rainfall. Similarly, the plague of lice could have been merely the sudden hatching of lice throughout Egypt after rain that followed unusually hot and dry weather. The description of swarms of flies match the behaviour of dancing midges, which can sometimes be so dense that livestock have to be taken indoors to avoid asphyxiation, he says. Again, unusual weather conditions could have led them to the Nile. An abundance of biting insects would also have led to the "pestilence" that caused the death of the country's cattle. Similarly, the boils on the human population could have been caused by insect bites. The "fiery hail" could have been the large hailstones accompanied by ball lightning that sometimes appears during severe, dramatic storms. The locust swarms would also have been caused by severe environmental conditions, and a dense storm could also have produced the darkening of the skies described in the Bible."

Britain: Muslim car thieves: "Five members of a multimillion-pound "car-ringing" gang, who stole luxury cars after trawling expensive areas of London were sentenced yesterday . The 34 stolen vehicles included Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs, Range Rovers, Toyota Land Cruisers and an Aston Martin. Southwark Crown Court was told that the thieves videoed themselves at the wheel of high-powered cars on their mobile phones. One clip showed 21-year-old Yusef Kaduji behind the wheel of a Mercedes McLaren worth 300,000 pounds. Imran Ganchi, a father-of-two from Ilford, who masterminded the operation, was jailed for six years; Kaduji, from East London, got two years; Hameed Nawaz, 31, of Luton, received three years; and Shazad Hussain, 31, of Mosely, Birmingham, four years.Shakeel Shoukat, 21, also of Forest Gate, was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years."

Israel getting worried: "A senior Israeli official has fiercely criticized U.S. President George Bush's administration for the way it has dealt with the Iranian nuclear issue. The official said that the administration was not doing what was required of it to create an international coalition and wide agreement to pressure Iran over its nuclear program. Criticism from senior members of Israel's political echelon with regard to U.S. policy on the matter is rare. The official mainly spoke out against Bush's failure to enlist support from China, Russia and, to a certain extent, India, for increasing pressure on Iran and North Korea. According to the official, the Bush administration has insisted on stressing matters such as human rights in China and its policy on Taiwan, and as a result, has neglected to gain its support in the struggle against Iran."

Yes Minister: British bureaucrats help PRESERVE freedom of information: "At the turn of the year, Government forces, led by Lord Falconer of Thoroton, then Lord Chancellor, appeared determined to press ahead with new rules that would stop the media and campaign groups from making costly and embarrassing requests for information. New documents released under the Freedom of Information Act now provide a clearer understanding of why the Government got cold feet. Responses to its own consultation paper published last year include submissions from FOI officers who show themselves to be less than enthusiastic about the idea of “blanket aggregation”, whereby a financial cap would be put on the amount of money that could be spent on complying with FOI requests made by individuals from within the same organisation. Government agencies were even less enthusiastic. In its detailed response, Transport for London noted that the consultation paper did not present any evidence that “burdensome FOI requests are a significant or extensive problem outside of central government”. [Embarrassing political info is no skin off the bureaucrats' nose but processing requests does provide jobs for them]

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

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 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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"Perhaps the hardest question of twentieth-century history"?

I owe the following quotation from Harvard historian Niall Ferguson to Tiger Hawk

The contrast between the American and German responses to the Depression illuminates the central difficulty facing the historian who writes about the 1930s. These were the two industrial economies most severely affected by the economic crisis. Both entered the Depression as democracies; indeed, their constitutions had much in common -- both republics, both federations, both with a directly elected presidency, both with universal suffrage, both with a bicameral legislature, both with a supreme court. Yet one navigated the treacherous interwar waters without significant change to its political institutions and its citizens' freedoms; the other produced the most abominable regime ever to emerge from a modern democracy. To attempt to explain why is to address perhaps the hardest question of twentieth-century history.

Niall Ferguson sometimes says things congenial to conservatives but I think that the above quote shows very well that he is far from being a conservative. He seems blissfully unaware of one of the most frequent themes of conservative thinking: The importance of cultural continuity and the value of tradition. From Burke onward, conservatives have argued that the slow accumulation of "what has worked" in a given society is a valuable legacy that can only be lost or discarded at considerable peril. Yet that is exactly where Germany and the USA of the 1920s and 30s diverged.

Germany lost WWI and the USA won it. That did kinda make a difference. And the difference it made in Germany's case was great. Prior to 1918 Germany had been a constitutional monarchy where the legal powers of the monarch were not much different from the powers of the British monarch. But the traditions were very different. Where the British monarch conspicuously stayed out of politics, the Kaiser was very much a political voice. He made up for a lack of legal powers by using the great prestige of his office to persuade the politicians to do what he thought best for Germany. He saw his role as a check on the politicians and a voice on behalf of the ordinary people of Germany. He was, in short, an important father-figure and the embodiment of the Prussian traditions that were so influential and respected in most of Germany.

But after 1918 that was all thrown away. Not only did the Kaiser go into exile but many of Germany's previous constitutional arrangements were torn up and a substantially new system of government was invented largely out of thin air. All of the systems that had led to Germany's defeat were discredited and new systems had to be adopted wherever possible. Any conservative could have predicted where that would lead. And it did.

The USA, by contrast, came out of the war with flying colours, retained its traditional arrangements and remained stable -- despite the huge economic disruptions caused by its meddlesome Democrat President. The knowall FDR managed to convert a normal cyclic depression into the Great Depression by attacking business at exactly the time when business most needed support rather than hostility. (See also here and here)

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Jonathan Wilde has a reasonable article on black IQ which makes a point that I have been making for decades: That those who do not want to believe in the evidence simply set ever higher standards of proof -- so much so that you would never prove anything about anything if you consistently did that. They use the fact that all science is essentially probabilistic as a dishonest way of avoiding conclusions they do not like. One point that Wilde seems to miss is that blacks are the same species as whites. So if IQ has a strong genetic basis in whites (which is generally agreed on among scientists) to say that it is not genetically transmitted in blacks is really quite amazing racism.

Brits admit Iranian bungle: "The capture of 15 Royal Navy personnel by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during an operation in the Gulf in March was an embarrassment to the country, a report by the Commons Defence Committee said yesterday. Royal Navy commanders involved in the mission that led to the seizure of eight sailors and seven Royal Marines were also castigated for a "lapse in operational focus" and a "widespread failure of situational awareness". The MPs on the Defence Committee said that although no one had been court-martialled, "formal administrative action" had been taken against a number of Service personnel "across a wide spectrum of ranks". Administrative action can mean a letter of reprimand, but in some cases it can lead to an ending of promotion prospects and even discharge. The committee's report said that there had been "weaknesses in intelligence, in communications, in doctrine and in training".

Senate versus the Reps: "Democrats in each chamber are now blaming their colleagues in the other for the mess in which they find themselves. The predicament caused the majority party yesterday surrender to President Bush on domestic spending levels, drop a cherished renewable-energy mandate and move toward leaving a raft of high-profile legislation, from addressing the mortgage crisis to providing middle-class tax relief, undone or incomplete."

Pelosi's loss of reality contact: "With plummeting approval ratings and no legislative accomplishments to point to, Nancy Pelosi is melting down in the final days of the first session of the 110th Congress. Military success on the ground in Iraq also seems to be agitating the San Francisco Speaker who appears to be despondent over the fact that General Petraeus' surge is working.... Pelosi's desperation continues to grow as the clock appears to be running out on the Democrats. Their failure to address the nation's problems like rising prices, the seemingly inevitable return of the alternative minimum tax, and their gross abdication of their responsibility to our troops in the field have left the Americans restless and angry at their incompetence.... Instead of doing real Congressional business she will push forth bills that her and her cohorts understand have no chance....NO CHANCE of becoming law. Instead of working with those on the other side of the aisle she has allowed bills to languish or go down to defeat all to send a message. A message of complete and utter failure."

Dissecting the bailout plan: "It is not quite right to describe the new White House plan as a bailout of subprime mortgage borrowers. Actually, it is a bailout for a tiny fraction of those with adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), not subprime loans per se. Nearly half of all subprime mortgage rates are fixed-rate loans, and only 32% of ARMs are subprime. With all the misplaced political anxiety about rates being reset, you might imagine that all those victims who signed-up for these mortgages had no idea their rates might actually be adjusted. The Bush administration claims the plan will help 'up to' 1.2 million people. Most of that promised help consists of nothing more than another phone number to call for counseling about refinancing -- a redundant service unlikely to prove wildly popular. Refinancing has been soaring anyway, thanks to 30-year mortgage rates dipping below 6%."

Your income and your house: "In my opinion, the number one priority in resolving today's mortgage crisis is to bring the housing market back to equilibrium. Equilibrium means prices that are in line with incomes, with supply and demand in balance. With equilibrium prices, houses could be readily bought and sold. When houses can be readily bought and sold, mortgage loans are backed by valid collateral. When mortgage loans are backed by valid collateral, investors will once again be able to trust securities backed by pools of mortgages. Only when we reach that point will the 'subprime crisis' be behind us. The alternative to bringing the housing market back to equilibrium as soon as possible is to kick the problem down the road by keeping people in homes that they cannot afford. Keeping people in their homes at artificially low interest rates will only serve to perpetuate a distorted structure of home prices, ensuring that the crisis stays with us for years."

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

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 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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All the news that it is fit to distort

Post below excerpted from Taranto. See the original for links. The sheer ignorance of the NYT writers is amazing.

We had missed last Friday's New York Times editorial on Mitt Romney's religion speech until a reader called it to our attention last night, but it's such a shoddy piece of work that we thought it worth some attention even at this late date:

Mr. Romney filled his speech with the first myth -- that the nation's founders, rather than seeking to protect all faiths, sought to imbue the United States with Christian orthodoxy. He cited the Declaration of Independence's reference to "the creator" endowing all men with unalienable rights and the founders' proclaiming not just their belief in God, but their belief that God's hand guided the American revolutionaries.

Mr. Romney dragged out the old chestnuts about "In God We Trust" on the nation's currency, and the inclusion of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance--conveniently omitting that those weren't the founders' handiwork, but were adopted in the 1950s at the height of McCarthyism. . . .

The other myth permeating the debate over religion is that it is a dispute between those who believe religion has a place in public life and those who advocate, as Mr. Romney put it, "the elimination of religion from the public square." That same nonsense is trotted out every time a court rules that the Ten Commandments may not be displayed in a government building.

We believe democracy cannot exist without separation of church and state, not that public displays of faith are anathema. We believe, as did the founding fathers, that no specific religion should be elevated above all others by the government.

Let's start with the historical inaccuracies. As the U.S. Treasury Web site notes, "In God we trust" first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864, not in the 1950s. It is true that the motto's first appearance on paper money was not until the 1950s, but it was in 1957, the year Joseph McCarthy died, not at "the height of McCarthyism."



Similarly, while "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, this too was after McCarthyism's height. President Eisenhower signed the legislation changing the pledge on June 14 of that year; five days earlier, during the Army-McCarthy hearings, Joseph Welch famously confronted the senator from Wisconsin. Less than six months later the Senate censured McCarthy.

The Times Web site itself has the text of Romney's speech, and it makes clear that the paper's editorialists grievously misrepresent what the candidate actually said. His references to the Declaration of Independence's acknowledgment of the Creator are not in the context of calling for official "Christian orthodoxy"--quite the opposite:

The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation "Under God" and in God, we do indeed trust. We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders--in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. . . .

It was in Philadelphia that our founding fathers defined a revolutionary vision of liberty, grounded on self evident truths about the equality of all, and the inalienable rights with which each is endowed by his Creator. We cherish these sacred rights, and secure them in our Constitutional order. Foremost do we protect religious liberty, not as a matter of policy but as a matter of right. There will be no established church, and we are guaranteed the free exercise of our religion.

Finally, let's ponder the Times's statement that "we believe democracy cannot exist without separation of church and state." What an utterly mindless statement. Yes, separation of church and state is central to the American constitutional order. But to believe that democracy cannot exist without it is to believe that Britain is not a democracy

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What a difference a year makes

The world looks safer, friendlier, more hopeful than it did as we approached Christmastime last year. Then, we were on the defensive, perhaps on the verge of defeat, in Iraq. The Europeans' attempts to persuade Iran to renounce nuclear weapons seemed to have failed. Hugo Chavez was using his near-dictatorial powers and the oil wealth of Venezuela to secure the election of opponents of the American "empire" in Latin America.

Today, things look different. And they suggest, to me at least, that the policies of the Bush administration, pilloried as bankrupt by the Democrats after their victory in congressional elections in November, have served American interests better than most Americans then thought.

Start with Iraq. The surge strategy, opposed by almost all Democrats in Congress and the party's presidential candidates, has clearly worked. Violence has sharply decreased; Iraqi Sunnis have turned against al-Qaida and toward the Shiite-dominated government; bottom-up reconciliation has gone forward in apparently all areas of the country. Polls show that despite minimal coverage in the mainstream media for many months, most Americans are coming to understand that the surge is working.

Source

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ELSEWHERE



A chicken Democrat above

There were some VERY favourable responses to Fred Thompson's performance in the Iowa Republican debates the other night. See here for a summary.

Quote of the Day: "Mohammad Elmasry, President of the Canadian Islamic Congress (the same group trying to get Mark Steyn censored for "Islamophobia") sets us straight about the Islamist father who strangled his daughter for refusing to wear a head scarf: "I don't want the public to think that this is really an Islamic issue or an immigrant issue, It is a teenager issue.". Note that even if he were to deflect the blame away from Islam's barbarous ideas about men owning women, he could at least say this is a "psychopath issue," at least fixing the blame on the murderous father. He doesn't. He says "This is a teenager issue" as if teenagers are the ones we have the problem with"

Economists choose the GOP: "Asked which presidential candidate would be best for the economy, only half responded but most threw their support behind Republicans. Thirty-five percent said Rudy Giuliani would be best, while 19% chose John McCain and 15% picked Mitt Romney. Hillary Clinton got the support of 8%, while John Edwards was the only other Democrat to register with 4% of the vote."

More British bureaucratic brilliance: ""More than 8,200 homes rented by the Ministry of Defence for use by military families in England and Wales are unoccupied, the BBC has learned. Figures show 20% of married quarters are empty, but cost taxpayers 28.78 million pounds a year in rent paid to a housing company."

Flip burgers proudly: "Our economy has evolved, yes. Sometimes painfully. But Americans are still very well off, still enjoy many opportunities. And plenty of cheap hamburgers. Who flips them? Sometimes retirees looking to supplement income. Usually kids. I go to McDonald's, I see kids behind the counter. Is this a bad thing? That they're starting out behind a counter instead of as CEO of General Motors? You can bring diligence, honesty, pride in your work to any job."

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

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 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 Wages of Appeasement

For conservatives the story of the recent National Intelligence Estimate is unbelievable. What would possess the analysts in the federal intelligence bureaucracy to issue a finding that Iran has abandoned its military nuclear weapons program? Given the secrecy that surrounds all government ventures into nuclear weaponry we wonder how anyone can presume to know with "high confidence" whether Iran or any other nation has or has not a nuclear weapons program. And why would anyone so blatantly try to appease a revolutionary regime like the Islamic Republic of Iran?

The answer is simpler than you might think. In the view of the western educated middle class, appeasement works every time it is tried. There is more. The policy of appeasement, consistently applied by the educated middle class throughout the past century, has proved to be the royal road to political power and influence -- for the educated middle class.

First they appeased the struggling working man, arguing that "people have needs." They built a welfare state and put themselves in charge. Then they moved American blacks, condemned to second-class citizenship by discrimination and racism, from the Southern plantation to the liberal plantation. Then it was traditionally marginalized women and gays. All the while establishing bureaucracies and programs administered by guess who? So it is not surprising that the western educated middle class believes that the way to deal with Muslims in general and Iran in particular is through appeasement.

It's easy to assume that all this NIE nonsense and literary name-calling is pure cynicism. But we should give our liberal friends the benefit of the doubt and allow that they actually believe that their policy of appeasing the enemies of the West is moral and just. There are people who really think that the problem is a deep "hostility to Islam and intolerance of otherness." (What about liberals, their deep hostility to Christianity and their intolerance of Christian otherness?)

But wait, you say! Islam is different. Its doctrine of jihad is completely different from the militant working class of 1845 or the African American rioters of 1965. These people want to take over the world! Maybe so. But you cannot expect your average progressive to abandon a political tactic that has worked so well for over a century on the say-so of a bunch of neocon theocrat bigots. Our liberal friends want a world free from injustice and otherness; they believe that the right and just thing to do is always to appease the latest group that declares itself a victim...

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Not so free speech in the Netherlands: "Threats of murder. Fears of riots and religious violence. Demands for censorship. Politicians in hiding, fearing for their lives. A government preparing for the worst. It's happening right now in a most unlikely place ... the Netherlands, once regarded as Europe's quietest and most stable nation. And it's all happening because of a 10-minute movie that hasn't even been made yet. It's the work of Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who calls his movie "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamicization." Wilders plans to present it to his country on television sometime next month. "People who watch the movie will see that the Koran is very much alive today, leading to the destruction of everything we in the Western world stand for, which is respect and tolerance," Wilders, the 41-year-old leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said in a telephone interview."

Leftist fear of Muslims unmasked: "Larry O'Donnell went on a tirade about Mitt Romney, Mormons and Joseph Smith on this past weekend's McLaughlin Group. So I had him on yesterday to discuss his Mormon problem: HH: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith? LO'D: Oh, well, I'm afraid of what the.that's where I'm really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I'm afraid for my life if I do. HH: Well, that's candid. LO'D: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They're not going to ever. HH: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they'll just send you a strudel. LO'D: They'll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I'm not going to say a word about them".

British PM to "negotiate" with Taliban: Gordon Brown will announce today that he intends to talk to the Taliban in a bid to end the war in Afghanistan. In a major shift in UK foreign policy the Prime Minister is expected to tell the Commons today that negotiation is the only way to bring peace to the war torn country. This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion of 2001. Since January more than 6,200 people have been killed including 40 British soldiers. In all, 86 British soldiers have died during the campaign which was launched to crush Al Qaeda and the Taliban following the September 11 outrage in America." [Comment here]

Another hopeless British computer system: "Taxpayers face new fines from the European Commission over continued failings in the system to make "green" payments to English farmers. The National Audit Office reveals today that 292 million pounds has already been set aside by the Government to pay for cash penalties for late payments for the farm hand outs in 2005 and 2006. It calls for an updating of the Rural Payments Agency's computer systems.

Military Commanders Running Iran's "Civilian" Nuclear Program: "The idiocy of the NIE continues to reverberate through the media and blogs. Major points about the NIE include the fact it was not a consensus of the intel community and there are dissenters in the career analyst corps who disagree with the key finding of moderate confidence - like the conclusion Iran continues to suspend its weapon design program. It also attempts to play the same shell game all rogue states play by assuming any program labeled `civilian' cannot possibly be a cover for an illegals weapons program. Nah, how could that be? Apparently the Three Amigos Of State who pushed this propaganda act through did not have the intelligence (pun intended - most definitely) to know that the men running Iran's `civilian' nuclear program are all Commanders and leaders from Iran's military units"

The Collapse Of The FEC?: "The Washington Post is alarmed, George Will is ecstatic. Three recess appointments to the six member Federal Elections Commission board will expire when Congress adjourns. Senate Democrats placed a hold on the Republican (the other two are Democrats). The Republicans have responded by saying it is all three or none for confirmation. Will surveys the turmoil and pronounces it a good thing.... If this standoff persists until Congress adjourns, the three recess appointments will expire and the FEC will have just two members - a Republican vacancy has existed since April. If so, the commission will be prohibited from official actions, including the disbursement of funds for presidential candidates seeking taxpayer financing."

A History Of Lies: "Stuart Taylor Jr. from The National Journal has a handy-dandy history of the lies, distortions, misrepresentations and dissembling of Hillary Clinton throughout her White House years. Put together this way, it is extraordinary - and highlights the insanity of the Clinton Campaign trying to attack the integrity of other candidates."

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

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 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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Are All Brains the Same Color ?

Psychologist Richard Nisbett has an article in the NYT under the rather silly heading "All Brains Are the Same Color". It is the usual misleading account of the evidence about black IQ. I am a bit tired of demolishing these pieces of nonsense so I reproduce below a fisking of the article by Bob Williams. There is much more that could be said but Bob does a pretty good job nonetheless:

Nisbett says:

The first notable public airing of the scientific question came in a 1969 article in The Harvard Educational Review by Arthur Jensen, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Jensen maintained that a 15-point difference in I.Q. between blacks and whites was mostly due to a genetic difference between the races that could never be erased. But his argument gave a misleading account of the evidence.

This is not true. There was nothing misleading, nor incorrect. After 37 years, Jensen's observations have been clearly established as correct.

In fact, the evidence heavily favors the view that race differences in I.Q. are environmental in origin, not genetic.

False. Anyone who does not understand this may wish to read Rushton, J.P. and Jensen, A.R. (2005). Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 11, No. 2, 235-294 and this

The hereditarians begin with the assertion that 60 percent to 80 percent of variation in I.Q. is genetically determined. However, most estimates of heritability have been based almost exclusively on studies of middle-class groups.

The B-W IQ gap is larger at the highest level of SES than at the lowest. The above comment is inane. There have been literally hundreds of IQ studies of various racial groups from many different countries and they show the same outcome:

Highest IQ: Ashkenazi Jews
Next highest: East Asians (Mongoloids)
Next highest: Whites of European ancestry
Lower: American Indians and Latinos
Lower still: American and European Blacks
Very low: sub-Saharan Blacks
Lowest: Bushmen and Pygmies

For the poor, a group that includes a substantial proportion of minorities, heritability of I.Q. is very low, in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent, according to recent research by Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia.

Turkheimer reached this conclusion by studying children who were age 7 and less. This is long before the shared environmental component vanishes. [See also here and here]

This means that for the poor, improvements in environment have great potential to bring about increases in I.Q.

For children only. The shared environmental component equals ZERO for adults.

Nearly all the evidence suggesting a genetic basis for the I.Q. differential is indirect.

Not true. You have to wonder why this person makes such obviously false assertions. Perhaps he thinks his readers are not familiar with the research. A good bit of the evidence is so specific that it cannot be associated with environmental causes by any means. See either of the two references I previously gave.

There is, for example, the evidence that brain size is correlated with intelligence, and that blacks have smaller brains than whites. But the brain size difference between men and women is substantially greater than that between blacks and whites, yet men and women score the same, on average, on I.Q. tests.

The brain size difference between the sexes is a virtually perfect predictor of the IQ difference between the sexes. The claim that the sexes have identical IQs is at odds with numerous independent findings, although the subject is still being debated.

Likewise, a group of people in a community in Ecuador have a genetic anomaly that produces extremely small head sizes - and hence brain sizes. Yet their intelligence is as high as that of their unaffected relatives.

This person does not understand correlations. Even large numbers of exceptions do not invalidate correlations. One or two points will have little significance, other than to move the correlation coefficient by a tiny amount.

About 25 percent of the genes in the American black population are European, meaning that the genes of any individual can range from 100 percent African to mostly European. If European intelligence genes are superior, then blacks who have relatively more European genes ought to have higher I.Q.'s than those who have more African genes. But it turns out that skin color and "negroidness" of features - both measures of the degree of a black person's European ancestry - are only weakly associated with I.Q. (even though we might well expect a moderately high association due to the social advantages of such features).

The Black admixture formula (from Lynn) is: IQ = 80 + (admixture % x 0.2) [see Lynn, Richard (2006). "Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis", Washington Summit Publishers, Georgia.] This formula predicts the regional and mean IQs of Blacks in the US and Europe.

During World War II, both black and white American soldiers fathered children with German women. Thus some of these children had 100 percent European heritage and some had substantial African heritage. Tested in later childhood, the German children of the white fathers were found to have an average I.Q. of 97, and those of the black fathers had an average of 96.5, a trivial difference.

This citation is known as the Eyferth study. Environmental proponents always cite it because they have not found any other evidence to cite. But their claim is incredibly lame:

* The "study" consisted of a very small N. Some citations claim 98 and some 69.

* Although the children's IQ was measured, the parents' IQ was not measured (neither was the rank of the US military father measured). So it is not known whether the children inherited the parental IQ.

* About 30 percent of US blacks failed pre-induction mental tests for the military, compared with 3 percent of white. So US black soldiers were a more IQ-selected and less-representative sample of their population than were white soldiers.

* Children were tested prior to the age at which the genotypic aspect of intelligence has become fully manifested. [See also here]

* 20% to 25% of the "Black" fathers were not African Americans but French North Africans (i.e., largely Caucasian or "Whites" as we have defined the terms here).

But it turns out that skin color and "negroidness" of features - both measures of the degree of a black person's European ancestry - are only weakly associated with I.Q. (even though we might well expect a moderately high association due to the social advantages of such features).

There is no presently available study (to the best of my knowledge) of within group IQ variation as a function of skin color. But there is a between group study, as cited in my previously referenced article:

Templer and Arikawa (2006):

skin color to winter high temperature r = .85 (p < 0.001)

IQ to skin color r = - .92 (p < 0.001 )

The correlation shown above is not even close to "weakly associated." It is very strong. Nisbett did not offer any numbers or references to support his assertion.

The closest thing to direct evidence that the hereditarians have is a study from the 1970s showing that black children who had been adopted by white parents had lower I.Q.'s than those of mixed-race children adopted by white parents. But, as the researchers acknowledged, the study had many flaws; for instance, the black children had been adopted at a substantially later age than the mixed-race children, and later age at adoption is associated with lower I.Q.

All adopted children reached adult IQs that were equal to their biological peers and which had no correlation with their adoptive families. Transracial studies were not limited to Blacks adopted by Whites but included Asians adopted by Whites. The Blacks ended up with lower IQs than their adoptive families and the Asians ended up with IQs higher than their adoptive families.

That environment can markedly influence I.Q. is demonstrated by the so-called Flynn Effect.

No, it is not.

James Flynn, a philosopher and I.Q. researcher in New Zealand, has established that in the Western world as a whole, I.Q. increased markedly from 1947 to 2002.

Not true. What he found was an increase in raw scores. At the same time scholastic-component raw scores (within the same tests) declined.

In the United States alone, it went up by 18 points. Our genes could not have changed enough over such a brief period to account for the shift;

He got one right.

it must have been the result of powerful social factors.

No. There is absolutely no evidence that any social factors were at work. It appears that most or all of the gains were specific and not g loaded and are apparently due to multiple factors such as nutrition, family size, and environmental conditions that exist in very early life, since the secular rise is observable in toddlers.

Most important, we know that interventions at every age from infancy to college can reduce racial gaps in both I.Q. and academic achievement, sometimes by substantial amounts in surprisingly little time.

The IQ boosts that have been reported were temporary (very short lived) and were believed to be largely the result of teaching to the test. That means that the gains were in s loading and not in g loading. No g loading gains have been demonstrated.

This mutability is further evidence that the I.Q. difference has environmental, not genetic, causes.

No, it is not. Nisbett needs to read (or read again) Rushton, J.P. and Jensen, A.R. (2005). Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 11, No. 2, 235-294.

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Brookes News Update

The US economy: we've got the boom but what about the bust?: It is unlikely that we will see the US economy fall into recession before next June. In fact, if the current indicators remain as they are we might see the boom carry on into 2009. But sooner or later real factors will make an imminent recession unavoidable
Will the US economy suffer a downturn?: The likely economic downturn in the US economy in the months ahead is not going to be on account of sub-prime mortgages meltdown and the likely weakening in consumer outlays but on account of the boom-bust policies of the Fed
Why the union-sponsored Australia at Work study is worthless: The Buchanan and Woonay study is worthless union propaganda. It assumed as true that which it was supposed to prove. To do this it denied the very existence of economic laws. So much for economic reason and informed debate
Inflation: the pestilence that threatens prosperity, part 1: Golden Age of corporate profitability may be coming to a juddering end. Many already-booked 'profits' will prove to have been utterly insubstantial. If that happens, the Bull's mantra that the market is 'cheap' enough to support present prices might ring very hollow indeed
The Annapolis plan: How can Israel be so stupid?: Fatah demands a two-state solution while in Arabic it promise death to the Jews and the extermination of Israel. Given this fact why do so many in the West back a policy that amounts to the implementation of Hitler's Final Solution?
Brazil's leftist government is promoting race hatred: Race-baiting Marxists are doing the best to provoke a race war in Brazil. This is more evidence that Marxists are a bunch of political thugs motivated by hatred and a desire to do evil
The key question about the NIE's key judgment: Here's the key question about the Key Judgment of the National Intelligence Council's new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear intentions and capabilities: Is this judgment supported by the evidence?

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ELSEWHERE

Fred Thompson on the move: Beginning Monday, December 17, Thompson will launch a bus tour that will take him throughout the state. From the beginning of that trip through caucus night, Thompson will essentially live in Iowa, taking only a one-day trip out of the state to celebrate Christmas at his home in Virginia. ... Thompson has said publicly that he needs to finish in the top three in Iowa. Campaign officials say that a strong third place finish -- presumably behind new frontrunner Mike Huckabee and former frontrunner Mitt Romney -- would likely give them enough momentum to survive New Hampshire and compete in South Carolina and beyond. A second place finish would be a victory."

Chavez the crook: "Most of Latin America's leaders breathed a sigh of relief earlier this week, after Venezuelan voters rejected President Hugo Chavez's constitutional amendment referendum. In private they were undoubtedly relieved that Chavez lost, and in public they expressed delight that he accepted defeat and did not steal the election. But by midweek enough information had emerged to conclude that Chavez did, in fact, try to overturn the results. As reported in El Nacional, and confirmed to me by an intelligence source, the Venezuelan military high command virtually threatened him with a coup d'etat if he insisted on doing so"

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

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

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

"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 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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