A good conservative comment from the WSJ:
As the 110th Congress continues its August recess, the big legislative news is that it has passed fewer laws than any Congress in the last two decades. An outfit known as Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that the fighting 110th has passed a mere 294 laws, while nonetheless finding time to consider 1,932 resolutions favoring such causes as National Watermelon Month. This is apparently supposed to be a matter of public consternation because Congress should be accomplishing more.
Sorry, but that's the best thing we've heard about this Congress. What a relief to discover the destruction could have been so much worse. With rare exceptions -- free-trade deals, money for the troops -- we wish the Members would spend every minute of every day passing resolutions. They'd have less time to do tangible harm.
Even we -- fated by bad career advice to write about this stuff -- haven't the foggiest idea what is in most of those 294 laws. The mayhem we know about is bad enough. There was that "reform" that blew up the student loan market and has led to Uncle Sam being America's college lender of first resort. This will be the Fannie Mae of the future. And don't forget the mortgage bailout, which puts taxpayers on the hook for as much as $300 billion in bad home loans.
Come to think of it, we'd feel safer if the whole crowd decided not to come back at all after Labor Day. Just stay home, or, even better, spend the rest of the year traveling on Congressional junkets. Sure, taxpayers would have to pay the airfare and hotel bills, but that's a bargain compared to what taxpayers will owe if Congress tries to solve any more problems.
Source
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BrookesNews Update
The US economy: all the little things that go to make a recession: "The problem with the US economy is bad economics, not bad investment decisions, wild speculation, the housing boom, etc. The vast majority of economic pundits have only a dim understanding of the link between the money supply and America's current economic difficulties
Will the Reserve sink the Australian economy?: Economic indicators are pointing to a recession. The blame for this situation rests not with the Labour Government but with the Reserve's lousy economics. Sad to say, the 'economics' that the bank practices is also the economic that our economic commentariat are forever preaching
US spending and lost innocence: The brilliant Professor Blinder (a former vice chairman of the Fed) has conjured up a scheme whereby the government buys clapped-out motors in order to increase the spending power their former owners. That the problem in the first place was too much spending cannot penetrate Blinders Keynesian mindset
Georgia and Putin: The Silence of the Lambs: Russia invades Georgia and the world's moralists remain silent. The lying hypocrites that condemned the US and its allies for liberating Iraq now give their silent endorsement to Putin's invasion of a democracy. And what does Obama do? He asserts that Georgia is equally at fault. What a wimp. This should show Americans not only how dangerous Obama is but just how hollow and stupid is the Dem claim that the US needs to rely on 'world opinion' and the UN
Russian imperialism: the three word solution: Russian economy is a one-trick pony. Crash oil prices and the Russian economy crashes. That's the necessary condition for putting an end to Russian barbaric belligerence
Oil Shale: Will Congress Cross The Jordan?: The US has at least 2 trillion barrels of oil shale. This is more than seven times the amount of crude oil reserves found in Saudi Arabia and is enough to meet current U.S. demand for over 250 years. Yet Obama and his fellow Democrats are fighting to keep this vast resource out of reach of their fellow Americans
Deconstructing Obama: The Presidency of the United States of America is not now, nor should it ever be, an entitlement. Yet that is precisely how Obama, the Democrats and their media partners in dishonesty are treating it
Democrats and the windfall profits tax: Regardless of what greedy, destructive tax-hungry Democrats think oil companies are owned by stockholders. Only about 1.5 percent of the stockholders are oil company executives. The rest of the stocks are owned by average Americans that have invested money in their mutual funds, retirement funds, 401K's, and individual accounts the stock market
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ELSEWHERE
Yet more proof that you can NEVER entrust ID details to British bureaucrats: "Confidential records and sensitive intelligence on tens of thousands of the country's most prolific criminals have been lost in a major breach of data security at the heart of Whitehall. Scotland Yard is investigating the loss of the information, which was taken from the Police National Computer and entrusted by the Home Office to a private consultancy firm. The data had been encrypted for security reasons but was decoded by staff at PA Consulting Group and placed on a computer memory stick that was subsequently lost. The device contains personal details and intelligence on 33,000 serious offenders, dossiers on 10,000 "priority criminals" and the names and dates of birth of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales."
The McCain houses: "John McCain's family owns at least eight properties - not the seven Democrats are alleging or the four McCain's staff identified - according to a Politico analysis of property and tax records, as well as interviews. The presumptive Republican nominee, though, may have some wiggle room in explaining why he couldn't immediately provide an answer when asked by Politico how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. Sen. McCain himself does not own any of the properties. They're all owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control."
There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly "incorrect" themes of race, genes, IQ etc.
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
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Friday, August 22, 2008
Report from Tbilisi (Georgia) by Michael J. Totten
Russia's invasion of Georgia has unleashed a refugee crisis all over the country and especially in its capital. Every school here in Tbilisi is jammed with civilians who fled aerial bombardment and shootings by the Russian military--or massacres, looting, and arson by irregular Cossack paramilitary units swarming across the border. Russia has seized and effectively annexed two breakaway Georgian provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has also invaded the region of Gori, which unlike them had been under Georgia's control. Gori is in the center of the country, just an hour's drive from Tbilisi; 90 percent of its citizens have fled, and the tiny remainder live amid a violent mayhem overseen by Russian occupatio! n forces that, despite Moscow's claims to the contrary, are not yet withdrawing.
On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women--Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya--who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. "We left the cattle," Lia said. "We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible." Diana's account: "They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators." And Nana: "We are so heartbroken. I don't know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning."
Seven families were living cheek by jowl inside a single classroom, sleeping on makeshift beds made of desks pushed together. Small children played with donated toys; at times, their infant siblings cried. Everyone looked haggard and beaten down, but food was available and the smell wasn't bad. They could wash, and the air conditioning worked.
"There was a bomb in the garden and all the apples on the trees fell down," Lia remembered. "The wall fell down. All the windows were destroyed. And now there is nothing left because of the fire."
"Did you actually see any Russians," I said, "or did you leave before they got there?"
"They came and asked us for wine, but first we had to drink it ourselves to show that it was not poisoned. Then they drank the wine themselves. And then they said to leave this place as soon as possible; otherwise they would kill us. The Russians were looking for anyone who had soldiers in their home. If anyone had a Georgian soldier at home they burned the houses immediately."
Her husband had remained behind and arrived in Tbilisi shortly before I did. "He was trying to keep the house and the fields," she explained. "Afterward, he wanted to leave, but he was circled by soldiers. It was impossible. He was in the orchards hiding from the Russians in case they lit the house. He was walking and met the Russian soldiers and he made up his mind that he couldn't stay any more. The Russian soldiers called him and asked where he was going, if he was going to the American side."
"The Russians said this to him?" I said.
"My husband said he was going to see his family," she said. "And the Russians said again, 'Are you going to the American side?'"
"So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here."
"Yes," she said. "Because our way is for democracy."
More here
******************************
The mortgage crisis
A good summary from Boortz
Every day it seems we hear endless stories about the mortgage and foreclosure crisis. The MSM just won't give you the whole story. Just a few facts to chew on today as you listen to more foreclosure and bad loan horror stories.
* This whole mess started because the media and liberals in congress were rattling their sabers over the lack of mortgages being offered to people with bad credit, limited incomes and poor job histories. So .. the loans were made, and now you see what happened. If the mortgage market had been left to operate without the threats of government interference things would have been quite a bit different.
* In 1999 only about 62% of privately owned homes carried a mortgage. Not sure what the figure is today, probably a bit higher. But of all the homes out there with mortgages, 97% of those mortgages are up to date .. that means not in default. That means that when you hear the media bleating about the mortgage crisis you could be talking about 3% of 62% of all privately owned homes. For those of you educated in government schools that would mean about 1.86 homeowners out of every 100 that are having a problem. This is NOT a crises.
* There are a lot of people out there who own homes who should be renting.
In about two years you're going to hear the bedwetters in congress and the media together with some liberal "activist" groups griping about the lack of available mortgages for people with bad credit, limited incomes and poor job histories ... and this whole mess will get cranked up again.
What even Boortz is not blunt enough to mention, however, is that it was primarily Congressional pressure to lend to blacks that generated the poorly secured loans
**********************
ELSEWHERE
100 pastors vow to defy IRS -- faith or folly? "The Associated Press made the startling announcement on May 9 that the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is actively recruiting pastors to challenge the so-called, 'Johnson Law' on September 28 and preach a sermon from the pulpit in which they will advocate the support of particular candidates in the fall election. If the action triggers an IRS investigation, the Arizona-based legal group will sue to overturn the federal rules, which were enacted in 1954. Under the IRS code, churches can distribute voter guides, run voter registration drives, hold forums on public policy and invite politicians to speak to their congregations. However, they cannot endorse a candidate, and their political activity cannot be biased for or against a candidate, directly or indirectly; neither can a church support specific legislation."
Surprises from the divorce revolution: "It may seem obvious that easier divorce laws make for more divorce and more insecurity. But what is obvious is not necessarily true. What two scholars have found is that when you make divorce easier to get, you may actually produce better marriages. In the old days, anyone who wanted to escape from the trials of wedlock had to get his or her spouse to agree to a split, or else go to court to prove the partner had done something terribly wrong (such as committing adultery). The 1960s and '70s brought 'no-fault' divorce, which is also known as 'unilateral divorce,' since either party can bring it about without the consent of the other. The first surprise is that looser divorce laws have actually had little effect on the number of marriages that fall apart."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Russia's invasion of Georgia has unleashed a refugee crisis all over the country and especially in its capital. Every school here in Tbilisi is jammed with civilians who fled aerial bombardment and shootings by the Russian military--or massacres, looting, and arson by irregular Cossack paramilitary units swarming across the border. Russia has seized and effectively annexed two breakaway Georgian provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has also invaded the region of Gori, which unlike them had been under Georgia's control. Gori is in the center of the country, just an hour's drive from Tbilisi; 90 percent of its citizens have fled, and the tiny remainder live amid a violent mayhem overseen by Russian occupatio! n forces that, despite Moscow's claims to the contrary, are not yet withdrawing.
On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women--Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya--who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. "We left the cattle," Lia said. "We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible." Diana's account: "They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators." And Nana: "We are so heartbroken. I don't know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning."
Seven families were living cheek by jowl inside a single classroom, sleeping on makeshift beds made of desks pushed together. Small children played with donated toys; at times, their infant siblings cried. Everyone looked haggard and beaten down, but food was available and the smell wasn't bad. They could wash, and the air conditioning worked.
"There was a bomb in the garden and all the apples on the trees fell down," Lia remembered. "The wall fell down. All the windows were destroyed. And now there is nothing left because of the fire."
"Did you actually see any Russians," I said, "or did you leave before they got there?"
"They came and asked us for wine, but first we had to drink it ourselves to show that it was not poisoned. Then they drank the wine themselves. And then they said to leave this place as soon as possible; otherwise they would kill us. The Russians were looking for anyone who had soldiers in their home. If anyone had a Georgian soldier at home they burned the houses immediately."
Her husband had remained behind and arrived in Tbilisi shortly before I did. "He was trying to keep the house and the fields," she explained. "Afterward, he wanted to leave, but he was circled by soldiers. It was impossible. He was in the orchards hiding from the Russians in case they lit the house. He was walking and met the Russian soldiers and he made up his mind that he couldn't stay any more. The Russian soldiers called him and asked where he was going, if he was going to the American side."
"The Russians said this to him?" I said.
"My husband said he was going to see his family," she said. "And the Russians said again, 'Are you going to the American side?'"
"So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here."
"Yes," she said. "Because our way is for democracy."
More here
******************************
The mortgage crisis
A good summary from Boortz
Every day it seems we hear endless stories about the mortgage and foreclosure crisis. The MSM just won't give you the whole story. Just a few facts to chew on today as you listen to more foreclosure and bad loan horror stories.
* This whole mess started because the media and liberals in congress were rattling their sabers over the lack of mortgages being offered to people with bad credit, limited incomes and poor job histories. So .. the loans were made, and now you see what happened. If the mortgage market had been left to operate without the threats of government interference things would have been quite a bit different.
* In 1999 only about 62% of privately owned homes carried a mortgage. Not sure what the figure is today, probably a bit higher. But of all the homes out there with mortgages, 97% of those mortgages are up to date .. that means not in default. That means that when you hear the media bleating about the mortgage crisis you could be talking about 3% of 62% of all privately owned homes. For those of you educated in government schools that would mean about 1.86 homeowners out of every 100 that are having a problem. This is NOT a crises.
* There are a lot of people out there who own homes who should be renting.
In about two years you're going to hear the bedwetters in congress and the media together with some liberal "activist" groups griping about the lack of available mortgages for people with bad credit, limited incomes and poor job histories ... and this whole mess will get cranked up again.
What even Boortz is not blunt enough to mention, however, is that it was primarily Congressional pressure to lend to blacks that generated the poorly secured loans
**********************
ELSEWHERE
100 pastors vow to defy IRS -- faith or folly? "The Associated Press made the startling announcement on May 9 that the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is actively recruiting pastors to challenge the so-called, 'Johnson Law' on September 28 and preach a sermon from the pulpit in which they will advocate the support of particular candidates in the fall election. If the action triggers an IRS investigation, the Arizona-based legal group will sue to overturn the federal rules, which were enacted in 1954. Under the IRS code, churches can distribute voter guides, run voter registration drives, hold forums on public policy and invite politicians to speak to their congregations. However, they cannot endorse a candidate, and their political activity cannot be biased for or against a candidate, directly or indirectly; neither can a church support specific legislation."
Surprises from the divorce revolution: "It may seem obvious that easier divorce laws make for more divorce and more insecurity. But what is obvious is not necessarily true. What two scholars have found is that when you make divorce easier to get, you may actually produce better marriages. In the old days, anyone who wanted to escape from the trials of wedlock had to get his or her spouse to agree to a split, or else go to court to prove the partner had done something terribly wrong (such as committing adultery). The 1960s and '70s brought 'no-fault' divorce, which is also known as 'unilateral divorce,' since either party can bring it about without the consent of the other. The first surprise is that looser divorce laws have actually had little effect on the number of marriages that fall apart."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
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Thursday, August 21, 2008
Why haven't the Left got Georgia on their minds?
Comment from Britain
Pity I was away last week. I must have missed the march through London against the Russian invasion of Georgia. What a magnificent sight it must have been - half a million protesters standing firm against tyranny and supporting freedom and democracy. I'd have loved to have heard Red Ken denouncing the bloodthirsty gangster regime in Moscow, George Galloway comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler and Tony Benn declaring it was all about oil.
What's that you say? There was no such rally? I suppose they must all have been too busy demonstrating against Chinese oppression in Tibet and demanding a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Or perhaps not. Funny how the Not In My Name crowd always overlooks aggression by Communist or 'former' Communist regimes.
There's no such reticence when it comes to portraying George W. Bush as the new Hitler or daubing swastikas on the Israeli flag. Look at the protests against the wars in Iraq and Lebanon. The same people who can't wait to burn the American flag in Trafalgar Square are only too happy to ignore Russian, Chinese and Iraqi genocide.
Where were all the marchers when the Russians were crushing Chechnya? Why so silent on Tibet? They must have been looking the other way when Saddam slaughtered the Kurds.
It hasn't been difficult to find apologists for the invasion of Georgia. We're told that the 'American-educated' Mikhail Saakashvili provoked the Russians beyond all reason. What did we expect encouraging the spread of democracy in former Soviet satellite states? No wonder Moscow feels threatened when independent countries it once ruled by military might become members of the European Union and apply to join Nato. Putting a Western missile defence system in Poland is like waving a red rag at a bull, the sophisticates say. Putin has no option but to retaliate. I don't remember them demanding the withdrawal of Soviet nukes pointing at Western capitals from East Germany. Back then, the Guardianistas were all for one-sided disarmament on our part.
The Left has always been picky about their protests. While they rightly denounce white racism in South Africa, they stay silent on black racism in Zimbabwe. They bang on about American cultural imperialism, but have nothing to say about Russian or Chinese military imperialism. America is constantly denounced for its 'yuman rites' abuses, but you never hear a dicky bird about the denial of basic freedoms in China or throughout the Muslim world.
Europe's Leftists define themselves by their hatred of the U.S., yet cheerfully tolerate all kinds of tyranny elsewhere. They're against 'torture' at Guantanamo Bay, but take a relaxed view of Chinese and Russian death squads. There are still plenty of 'comrades' in the Labour Party and the trades union movement who regret the day the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. They're only too willing to give succour to the enemies of freedom and democracy around the world.
Source
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Democrats and Drilling
It took a few months, and more than a few polls, but Democrats have concluded that they've lost the debate against more oil-and-gas drilling. The surrender became official on Saturday, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that even she was ready to "consider opening portions" of the Outer Continental Shelf to oil exploration.
That's great news, assuming she and her fellow Democrats really mean it. It wasn't too many days ago that the anticarbon Speaker lampooned drilling as "a hoax on the American people," while Barack Obama called it "another Washington gimmick." Now the Democratic Presidential candidate has also said he might be willing to change his mind and tolerate the exploitation of domestic energy resources. The good news for converts like Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Obama is that they have immediate opportunities to quiet Republicans and other skeptics and prove their new pro-drilling bona fides.
They can start with the 2008 Democratic Party platform, the policy outline for the election campaign that delegates will endorse at next week's Denver convention. Let's just say the draft now reads as if it was written before Speaker Pelosi's conversion on the road to ExxonMobil. For example, the platform draft now says that "We know we can't drill our way to energy independence." Then there's the bit about ending "the tyranny of oil," which will require "far more than simply expanding our economic and political resources to keep oil flowing steadily" from overseas and elsewhere. There's also no mention of drilling offshore, much less in Alaska, and nothing about exploiting our vast domestic supplies of oil shale.
Fortunately, Democrats have time to fix these political oversights. If they are serious, surely Democrats will have someone rise on the convention floor next week and offer an amendment that endorses offshore drilling and pledges not to extend the Congressional ban on drilling that expires on September 30. Come to think of it, Democrats should offer this amendment in prime time. How better to steal the drilling issue from Republicans? ....
We'll know Democrats are not serious if they limit their drilling support only to the so-called Gang of 10 proposal in the Senate. The bipartisan Gang would allow drilling only offshore of four states -- Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas -- and only if it is farther than 50 miles out. It would leave the most promising areas off limits, especially in the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. And in return for this de minimis drilling, the Gang wants to spend $84 billion more in subsidies for ethanol and other "alternatives," while hitting the oil industry with a $30 billion tax increase. This proposal is a trick designed to give Democrats political cover while opening up very little new land or offshore area for drilling.
More here
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ELSEWHERE
"Spengler" has an interesting explanation of Russian policy here. Putin is in most ways a typical Fascist leader but Spengler sees him simply as a Russian pursuing Russian interests. He thinks that Russia has a need to stop its population decline and that Putin sees the "rescue" of Russian-speakers in other countries as a quick way to do that. I think Spengler has a point but he overlooks the fact that Fascists tend to be aggressive, power-mad and "glory"-mad in general (though there have been some exceptions to that e.g. Peron and Salazar). I think Putin is mainly driven by a desire to have both Russia and himself feared and respected. When one considers how much the Western world today grovels to Muslims, one can see that he may get what he wants.
Walter Laqueur seems to be in broad agreement with Spengler.
The moral importance of Judeo-Christian religion: "We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion. What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies. For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them."
A fun video about high fuel prices here
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
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Comment from Britain
Pity I was away last week. I must have missed the march through London against the Russian invasion of Georgia. What a magnificent sight it must have been - half a million protesters standing firm against tyranny and supporting freedom and democracy. I'd have loved to have heard Red Ken denouncing the bloodthirsty gangster regime in Moscow, George Galloway comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler and Tony Benn declaring it was all about oil.
What's that you say? There was no such rally? I suppose they must all have been too busy demonstrating against Chinese oppression in Tibet and demanding a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Or perhaps not. Funny how the Not In My Name crowd always overlooks aggression by Communist or 'former' Communist regimes.
There's no such reticence when it comes to portraying George W. Bush as the new Hitler or daubing swastikas on the Israeli flag. Look at the protests against the wars in Iraq and Lebanon. The same people who can't wait to burn the American flag in Trafalgar Square are only too happy to ignore Russian, Chinese and Iraqi genocide.
Where were all the marchers when the Russians were crushing Chechnya? Why so silent on Tibet? They must have been looking the other way when Saddam slaughtered the Kurds.
It hasn't been difficult to find apologists for the invasion of Georgia. We're told that the 'American-educated' Mikhail Saakashvili provoked the Russians beyond all reason. What did we expect encouraging the spread of democracy in former Soviet satellite states? No wonder Moscow feels threatened when independent countries it once ruled by military might become members of the European Union and apply to join Nato. Putting a Western missile defence system in Poland is like waving a red rag at a bull, the sophisticates say. Putin has no option but to retaliate. I don't remember them demanding the withdrawal of Soviet nukes pointing at Western capitals from East Germany. Back then, the Guardianistas were all for one-sided disarmament on our part.
The Left has always been picky about their protests. While they rightly denounce white racism in South Africa, they stay silent on black racism in Zimbabwe. They bang on about American cultural imperialism, but have nothing to say about Russian or Chinese military imperialism. America is constantly denounced for its 'yuman rites' abuses, but you never hear a dicky bird about the denial of basic freedoms in China or throughout the Muslim world.
Europe's Leftists define themselves by their hatred of the U.S., yet cheerfully tolerate all kinds of tyranny elsewhere. They're against 'torture' at Guantanamo Bay, but take a relaxed view of Chinese and Russian death squads. There are still plenty of 'comrades' in the Labour Party and the trades union movement who regret the day the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. They're only too willing to give succour to the enemies of freedom and democracy around the world.
Source
**********************
Democrats and Drilling
It took a few months, and more than a few polls, but Democrats have concluded that they've lost the debate against more oil-and-gas drilling. The surrender became official on Saturday, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that even she was ready to "consider opening portions" of the Outer Continental Shelf to oil exploration.
That's great news, assuming she and her fellow Democrats really mean it. It wasn't too many days ago that the anticarbon Speaker lampooned drilling as "a hoax on the American people," while Barack Obama called it "another Washington gimmick." Now the Democratic Presidential candidate has also said he might be willing to change his mind and tolerate the exploitation of domestic energy resources. The good news for converts like Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Obama is that they have immediate opportunities to quiet Republicans and other skeptics and prove their new pro-drilling bona fides.
They can start with the 2008 Democratic Party platform, the policy outline for the election campaign that delegates will endorse at next week's Denver convention. Let's just say the draft now reads as if it was written before Speaker Pelosi's conversion on the road to ExxonMobil. For example, the platform draft now says that "We know we can't drill our way to energy independence." Then there's the bit about ending "the tyranny of oil," which will require "far more than simply expanding our economic and political resources to keep oil flowing steadily" from overseas and elsewhere. There's also no mention of drilling offshore, much less in Alaska, and nothing about exploiting our vast domestic supplies of oil shale.
Fortunately, Democrats have time to fix these political oversights. If they are serious, surely Democrats will have someone rise on the convention floor next week and offer an amendment that endorses offshore drilling and pledges not to extend the Congressional ban on drilling that expires on September 30. Come to think of it, Democrats should offer this amendment in prime time. How better to steal the drilling issue from Republicans? ....
We'll know Democrats are not serious if they limit their drilling support only to the so-called Gang of 10 proposal in the Senate. The bipartisan Gang would allow drilling only offshore of four states -- Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas -- and only if it is farther than 50 miles out. It would leave the most promising areas off limits, especially in the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. And in return for this de minimis drilling, the Gang wants to spend $84 billion more in subsidies for ethanol and other "alternatives," while hitting the oil industry with a $30 billion tax increase. This proposal is a trick designed to give Democrats political cover while opening up very little new land or offshore area for drilling.
More here
************************
ELSEWHERE
"Spengler" has an interesting explanation of Russian policy here. Putin is in most ways a typical Fascist leader but Spengler sees him simply as a Russian pursuing Russian interests. He thinks that Russia has a need to stop its population decline and that Putin sees the "rescue" of Russian-speakers in other countries as a quick way to do that. I think Spengler has a point but he overlooks the fact that Fascists tend to be aggressive, power-mad and "glory"-mad in general (though there have been some exceptions to that e.g. Peron and Salazar). I think Putin is mainly driven by a desire to have both Russia and himself feared and respected. When one considers how much the Western world today grovels to Muslims, one can see that he may get what he wants.
Walter Laqueur seems to be in broad agreement with Spengler.
The moral importance of Judeo-Christian religion: "We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion. What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies. For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them."
A fun video about high fuel prices here
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
THE AXIS OF OIL
What do Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and Islamic extremists have in common? They're funded by America's thirst for foreign oil. If drilling isn't a cure by itself, it's a start.
Wars aren't cheap, even when they go well. But Russia has plenty of money to burn on war. It's flush with Western cash because it's flush with oil and natural gas. If Putin wishes to recreate the domain of the tsars, he has the wherewithal for that grand ambition. The resurgent Russian empire is one of the big winners in the massive wealth transfer that has taken place in recent years with rising oil prices. OPEC countries are cleaning up, too. The U.S., which consumes 24% of the world's oil while producing just 10%, is the main source of the oil powers' new riches. Not all this money goes into war, terrorism or other evils. Some is used to build over-the-top commercial real estate projects in places such as Dubai. Quite a bit finds its way back to the U.S. to finance our national debt.
The membership list of the Axis of Oil seems to include more than the normal share of bad actors. One is Putin, who might be more circumspect if his country were not so rich. Venezuela's Chavez would not be exporting revolution Castro-style if he did not have a cushion of oil wealth that, among other things, keeps his own people pacified with cheap gasoline. Iran wouldn't be thumbing its nose so brazenly at the U.S. and Europe if it didn't export oil and occupy one side of the choke point for all oil leaving the Persian Gulf. Islamic extremism would be less of a threat if the Wahhabists of Saudi Arabia had difficulty funding its global spread through madrassas and mosques.
Some oil exporters are benign, such as Canada and Mexico (America's two largest sources). But the net effect of cutting U.S. demand for foreign oil, especially from outside North America, is clearly to the upside. The move would help defund nations and movements that are sowing fear and instability, and it would make the U.S. less of an economic hostage to questionable allies and outright foes.
As to how this can be accomplished, the answer is simple: Do everything, but in a realistic order. Oil's dominance is gradually ebbing and will eventually end. But eventually is a long time, and our energy economy can't totally retool in a decade. Down the road, there's a future powered by solar, wind, nuclear, biofuels and maybe hydrogen. In the meantime, the fastest way to boost energy security as well as slow the flow of wealth to terrorists, tinpots and would-be tsars is to drill, drill, drill wherever oil in U.S. territory may be found.
Source
********************
Mommy won't help Dems on abortion
Were you aware that the Democratic Party platform will soon "strongly" support "motherhood"? Many of us with mothers are grateful. Yesterday, a bevy of articles appeared alerting us to the fact that Democrats would offer a pointless embrace of maternity to soften the edges of the party's position on abortion. This, presumably, would grant many social conservatives the space they need to immerse in the warm and tender rays of Hope.
Has anything changed policywise on the issue? Has Barack Obama's stance softened? Not yet. And why should it The right of a woman to choose an abortion is one of the tenets of the Democratic Party. A political body must take an inflexible position on occasion - or is "unity" just another word for "get me elected"?
Giving mom her due was a compromise forged by insiders in intense behind-the-scenes negotiations. The platform will now "strongly and unequivocally" support Roe vs. Wade, but also "strongly" support a woman's decision to carry a pregnancy to term. Will Republicans follow suit by padding their anti-abortion platform statement with an iron-clad promise to support the right of citizens to grow mustaches? Such a declaration, after all, would be equally relevant.
Michael Yaki, the platform director, claims insiders spent days - days! - bringing parties together to carve out this intricate declaration. "If we had tried to do this on the fly, my concern was that it could turn into some very messy public event," he explained. Messy, indeed. Democrats face a political barrier on abortion, as it remains one of a handful of issues that can't be compromised even by those fed up by Republicans.
Yet, the Democrats are so enthusiastic to make abortion a non-issue that they've recruited the vigorously unexciting Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, a Catholic who opposes abortion rights, to be a featured speaker at the party's national convention. (Casey's father, ironically, was rejected for the same task - and for the same reason - by Democrats in 1992.) Are voters, one wonders, truly so breathtakingly dim-witted that they will pivot on such an important issue because of a transparently dim platform addendum supporting human procreation? Or will a single speaker at the convention do the trick?
Our wide spectrum of positions on abortion can be influenced by deep moral, religious, ideological and personal convictions. Politically, though, the divide is clear - and should be clear. One of the reasons we have political parties is so that they can take, you know, positions on stuff. And a number of elected Democrats in moderate states purport to be opposed to abortion rights. But rarely, if ever, is their theoretical bravery put to the test by any actual vote. Casey included.
Source
****************************
The destructive British Left on view: "The Conservatives tried to preempt Gordon Brown's autumn offensive with the launch yesterday of a 19-page paper, called An Unfair Britain, in which they attempt to show that Labour policies have made Britain more unfair. They claim that the number of people in deep poverty has risen by 900,000 since Labour came to power and that the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor is the highest since the Victorian age. They also claim that Labour's "stealth" tax policies meant that the poorest now pay more than the rich, while a failure to reform schools meant that the education gap between poorer and better-off students is getting worse."
Yet another example of what happens when governments distort markets : "Here in the heart of Mexico's tequila country, where every town has a distillery and the air smells sweet like fermenting molasses, a sign proudly marks the entrance to Miguel Ram¡rez's farm: "Rancho Ram¡rez: Producer of Agaves." But behind the fence, the blue-agave plants, the raw ingredient of Mexico's most famous liquor, are getting harder to spot. They are being replaced by row after row of leafy cornstalks. Like other farmers in western Mexico, Ram¡rez is abandoning his slow-growing agave plants to cash in on corn, beans and other food crops that are selling for record prices worldwide. They are part of an international trend, as everyone from Idaho potato farmers to Bolivian coca growers cut back on their trademark crops in hopes of making big money on corn and grain."
Ex-Marine decries prosecution in civilian court: "A former Marine sergeant facing the first federal civilian prosecution of a military member accused of a war crime says there is much more at stake than his claim of innocence on charges that he killed unarmed detainees in Fallujah, Iraq. In the view of Jose Luis Nazario Jr., U.S. troops may begin to question whether they will be prosecuted by civilians for doing what their military superiors taught them to do in battle. Nazario is the first military service member who has completed his duty to be brought to trial under a law that allows the government to prosecute defense contractors, military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes outside the United States. "They train us, and they expect us to rely back on that training. Then when we use that training, they prosecute us for it?" Nazario said during an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. "I didn't do anything wrong. I don't think I should be the first tried like this," said Nazario, whose trial begins Tuesday in Riverside, east of Los Angeles. If Nazario, 28, is convicted of voluntary manslaughter, some predict damaging consequences on the battlefield. "This boils down to one thing in my mind: Are we going to allow civilian juries to Monday-morning-quarterback military decisions?" said Nazario's attorney, Kevin McDermott."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
What do Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and Islamic extremists have in common? They're funded by America's thirst for foreign oil. If drilling isn't a cure by itself, it's a start.
Wars aren't cheap, even when they go well. But Russia has plenty of money to burn on war. It's flush with Western cash because it's flush with oil and natural gas. If Putin wishes to recreate the domain of the tsars, he has the wherewithal for that grand ambition. The resurgent Russian empire is one of the big winners in the massive wealth transfer that has taken place in recent years with rising oil prices. OPEC countries are cleaning up, too. The U.S., which consumes 24% of the world's oil while producing just 10%, is the main source of the oil powers' new riches. Not all this money goes into war, terrorism or other evils. Some is used to build over-the-top commercial real estate projects in places such as Dubai. Quite a bit finds its way back to the U.S. to finance our national debt.
The membership list of the Axis of Oil seems to include more than the normal share of bad actors. One is Putin, who might be more circumspect if his country were not so rich. Venezuela's Chavez would not be exporting revolution Castro-style if he did not have a cushion of oil wealth that, among other things, keeps his own people pacified with cheap gasoline. Iran wouldn't be thumbing its nose so brazenly at the U.S. and Europe if it didn't export oil and occupy one side of the choke point for all oil leaving the Persian Gulf. Islamic extremism would be less of a threat if the Wahhabists of Saudi Arabia had difficulty funding its global spread through madrassas and mosques.
Some oil exporters are benign, such as Canada and Mexico (America's two largest sources). But the net effect of cutting U.S. demand for foreign oil, especially from outside North America, is clearly to the upside. The move would help defund nations and movements that are sowing fear and instability, and it would make the U.S. less of an economic hostage to questionable allies and outright foes.
As to how this can be accomplished, the answer is simple: Do everything, but in a realistic order. Oil's dominance is gradually ebbing and will eventually end. But eventually is a long time, and our energy economy can't totally retool in a decade. Down the road, there's a future powered by solar, wind, nuclear, biofuels and maybe hydrogen. In the meantime, the fastest way to boost energy security as well as slow the flow of wealth to terrorists, tinpots and would-be tsars is to drill, drill, drill wherever oil in U.S. territory may be found.
Source
********************
Mommy won't help Dems on abortion
Were you aware that the Democratic Party platform will soon "strongly" support "motherhood"? Many of us with mothers are grateful. Yesterday, a bevy of articles appeared alerting us to the fact that Democrats would offer a pointless embrace of maternity to soften the edges of the party's position on abortion. This, presumably, would grant many social conservatives the space they need to immerse in the warm and tender rays of Hope.
Has anything changed policywise on the issue? Has Barack Obama's stance softened? Not yet. And why should it The right of a woman to choose an abortion is one of the tenets of the Democratic Party. A political body must take an inflexible position on occasion - or is "unity" just another word for "get me elected"?
Giving mom her due was a compromise forged by insiders in intense behind-the-scenes negotiations. The platform will now "strongly and unequivocally" support Roe vs. Wade, but also "strongly" support a woman's decision to carry a pregnancy to term. Will Republicans follow suit by padding their anti-abortion platform statement with an iron-clad promise to support the right of citizens to grow mustaches? Such a declaration, after all, would be equally relevant.
Michael Yaki, the platform director, claims insiders spent days - days! - bringing parties together to carve out this intricate declaration. "If we had tried to do this on the fly, my concern was that it could turn into some very messy public event," he explained. Messy, indeed. Democrats face a political barrier on abortion, as it remains one of a handful of issues that can't be compromised even by those fed up by Republicans.
Yet, the Democrats are so enthusiastic to make abortion a non-issue that they've recruited the vigorously unexciting Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, a Catholic who opposes abortion rights, to be a featured speaker at the party's national convention. (Casey's father, ironically, was rejected for the same task - and for the same reason - by Democrats in 1992.) Are voters, one wonders, truly so breathtakingly dim-witted that they will pivot on such an important issue because of a transparently dim platform addendum supporting human procreation? Or will a single speaker at the convention do the trick?
Our wide spectrum of positions on abortion can be influenced by deep moral, religious, ideological and personal convictions. Politically, though, the divide is clear - and should be clear. One of the reasons we have political parties is so that they can take, you know, positions on stuff. And a number of elected Democrats in moderate states purport to be opposed to abortion rights. But rarely, if ever, is their theoretical bravery put to the test by any actual vote. Casey included.
Source
****************************
The destructive British Left on view: "The Conservatives tried to preempt Gordon Brown's autumn offensive with the launch yesterday of a 19-page paper, called An Unfair Britain, in which they attempt to show that Labour policies have made Britain more unfair. They claim that the number of people in deep poverty has risen by 900,000 since Labour came to power and that the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor is the highest since the Victorian age. They also claim that Labour's "stealth" tax policies meant that the poorest now pay more than the rich, while a failure to reform schools meant that the education gap between poorer and better-off students is getting worse."
Yet another example of what happens when governments distort markets : "Here in the heart of Mexico's tequila country, where every town has a distillery and the air smells sweet like fermenting molasses, a sign proudly marks the entrance to Miguel Ram¡rez's farm: "Rancho Ram¡rez: Producer of Agaves." But behind the fence, the blue-agave plants, the raw ingredient of Mexico's most famous liquor, are getting harder to spot. They are being replaced by row after row of leafy cornstalks. Like other farmers in western Mexico, Ram¡rez is abandoning his slow-growing agave plants to cash in on corn, beans and other food crops that are selling for record prices worldwide. They are part of an international trend, as everyone from Idaho potato farmers to Bolivian coca growers cut back on their trademark crops in hopes of making big money on corn and grain."
Ex-Marine decries prosecution in civilian court: "A former Marine sergeant facing the first federal civilian prosecution of a military member accused of a war crime says there is much more at stake than his claim of innocence on charges that he killed unarmed detainees in Fallujah, Iraq. In the view of Jose Luis Nazario Jr., U.S. troops may begin to question whether they will be prosecuted by civilians for doing what their military superiors taught them to do in battle. Nazario is the first military service member who has completed his duty to be brought to trial under a law that allows the government to prosecute defense contractors, military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes outside the United States. "They train us, and they expect us to rely back on that training. Then when we use that training, they prosecute us for it?" Nazario said during an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. "I didn't do anything wrong. I don't think I should be the first tried like this," said Nazario, whose trial begins Tuesday in Riverside, east of Los Angeles. If Nazario, 28, is convicted of voluntary manslaughter, some predict damaging consequences on the battlefield. "This boils down to one thing in my mind: Are we going to allow civilian juries to Monday-morning-quarterback military decisions?" said Nazario's attorney, Kevin McDermott."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
John McCain and Britain's David Cameron are best suited to defy Russian aggression
McCain and the British Conservative leader were decisive while Gordon Brown (the British Labor Party Prime Minister) and Obama dithered
Suddenly we have a very different picture of the sort of political leader that we need. The world is not the same place that it was when the four main players on the Anglo-American political scene came on to the field. Barack Obama and John McCain began their contest in an atmosphere of relative security and prosperity. David Cameron emerged at a time of such general contentment that work-life balance seemed like the most urgent question facing the nation. (Remember that?)
When Gordon Brown took office he was immediately presented with a series of what seemed at the time to be testing crises that he surmounted with stoical authority: now the floods, the amateurish terror attacks and the brief revival of foot-and-mouth disease seem like flea bites. Where is he now that we are facing the most genuinely terrifying international confrontation in a generation? This is the man who has reminded us repeatedly (and rather plaintively) of the triumphal opening chapter of his premiership, implying that he would like nothing more than another opportunity to display Courage Under Fire. And he is missing in action. Gone AWOL? Hidden deep in his bunker surrounded by reassuring aides? Paralysed by the collapse of relations with his own Foreign Secretary? Hunched over his plans for a great autumn relaunch? Who knows?
Mr Cameron, meanwhile, cleverly filled the vacuum by taking himself off to Georgia to utter an uncompromising message of defiance to the Russians - and to deliver an unambiguous message to the British media that he wasn't just a politician for the soft times. He may have the luxury that Heaven bestows on opposition politicians of being powerless and therefore not encumbered with the problem of actually having to make anything happen, but his statements were unequivocal enough to commit him to a course of action in office - which is brave enough.
So in Britain we have seen a startling role reversal: the man billed as a brusque but resolute presence who came into his own in times of danger and anxiety has disappeared from the scene. And the one who was supposed to be cuddly and consumed with lightweight lifestyle issues is bestriding the world stage handing out ultimatums to an aggressive superpower.
In the United States, the story is taking a more predictable but no less riveting course. John McCain was always going to be the net gainer in a foreign crisis. Not only does he have precisely the experience - both personal and political - of coping with war and international threat, but his manner and his presence seem designed to be both reassuring and inspiring.
More here
***********************
The Great Depression Hoax
I slapped the side of my television in April when economist Joe Stiglitz called this the worst recession "since the Great Depression." But now the economy is not only hurting homeowners; it's apparently harming parakeets, too! An AP item reports that pet owners are abandoning their furry and feathery friends to animal shelters because they can no longer afford to feed them. Never mind that GDP is puttering along in positive terrain. Headlines still scream that we're closing in on 1929, not 2009.
Are we a nation of whiners, as Phil Gramm put it a little while ago, getting himself kicked off John McCain's advisory team? No, the American public is not whining. One reason may be that consumers are swallowing $13 billion of pick-me-uppers like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. (A doctor friend who volunteered at a sleepaway camp said that, every morning, 20% of the kids lined up for their psychomeds.) More likely, though, Americans are just leaving the whining to pundits and trend reporters. The fellow who filed the pet story did not bother to point out that, in this alleged new Great Depression, the Pet Products Manufacturers Association says that Americans have spent 5% more this year on their pooches and pussies than last year.
Where are the Hoovervilles camped out under the Washington Monument? Where are the soup lines? Willie Nelson is still on tour, beseeching us to save the family farm. But it must be tougher for him to gin up support when the typical American farm, thanks in part to ever expanding ethanol subsidies, has see its annual income surge 50% past its 10-year average. Apparently Willie is traveling on a biodiesel, soybean-fed bus. So now we know at least what Willie's bus is smoking.
The fact is that most Americans get up in the morning to work hard, feed their families and pay for soccer uniforms and maybe a vacation, if they can stand the security lines at the airport. Most Americans don't let whining get in the way of work. That separates us from the French, who would join a picket line to protest against picket lines. The problem with whining, as with socialism, is that it requires too many evenings. And forget about the organized whining that we know as social activism. That requires too many meetings and too many covered-dish dinners too. I'm still not sure what Barack Obama accomplished as a professional "community organizer." I doubt he was another Martin Luther King, but I'm pretty certain he carried a lot of macaroni salad.
Sure, we gripe about higher food prices and shaky home prices, but we are still living "La Vida Latte," lining up every morning before a barista and otherwise indulging in the imperatives of the good life. Yes, the share price of Starbucks has sunk of late, but Americans spent more, not less, at Starbucks last year than the year before. And if you add premium coffee sales at McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, the growth rate of this liquid luxury has soared. I should point out that the price of a Starbucks latte is about $1,200 a barrel. Makes that SUV fill-up a little easier to swallow, doesn't it?
More here
***********************
ELSEWHERE
Believe it or not, the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy has come out in defence of Hillary! See the video here.
Beijing Olympics: British athletes do well: "Britain's athletes have won four more gold medals in Beijing as their remarkable success over the weekend is hailed as the "greatest in British Olympics history". Sailors, cyclists, rowers and a teenage swimmer claimed eight golds in 48 hours and placed Britain third in the medal table ahead of Australia and Germany. Britain now has 11 gold - more than Athens - five silver and seven bronze medals to its name with another week to go. The homegrown Olympic squad is tipped to win a possible eight more golds. Prime minister Gordon Brown described the weekend as "unprecedented", while Buckingham Palace said the Queen was taking such an interest she had decided to invite all the Olympians to a reception on their return". [I suppose I expose myself to the charge of being curmudgeonly but I feel that I should note that the triumphs were no accident. Britain has spent a huge amount of charity money on preparing its athletes. Whether that is a good use for charity money I will leave for others to judge]
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
McCain and the British Conservative leader were decisive while Gordon Brown (the British Labor Party Prime Minister) and Obama dithered
Suddenly we have a very different picture of the sort of political leader that we need. The world is not the same place that it was when the four main players on the Anglo-American political scene came on to the field. Barack Obama and John McCain began their contest in an atmosphere of relative security and prosperity. David Cameron emerged at a time of such general contentment that work-life balance seemed like the most urgent question facing the nation. (Remember that?)
When Gordon Brown took office he was immediately presented with a series of what seemed at the time to be testing crises that he surmounted with stoical authority: now the floods, the amateurish terror attacks and the brief revival of foot-and-mouth disease seem like flea bites. Where is he now that we are facing the most genuinely terrifying international confrontation in a generation? This is the man who has reminded us repeatedly (and rather plaintively) of the triumphal opening chapter of his premiership, implying that he would like nothing more than another opportunity to display Courage Under Fire. And he is missing in action. Gone AWOL? Hidden deep in his bunker surrounded by reassuring aides? Paralysed by the collapse of relations with his own Foreign Secretary? Hunched over his plans for a great autumn relaunch? Who knows?
Mr Cameron, meanwhile, cleverly filled the vacuum by taking himself off to Georgia to utter an uncompromising message of defiance to the Russians - and to deliver an unambiguous message to the British media that he wasn't just a politician for the soft times. He may have the luxury that Heaven bestows on opposition politicians of being powerless and therefore not encumbered with the problem of actually having to make anything happen, but his statements were unequivocal enough to commit him to a course of action in office - which is brave enough.
So in Britain we have seen a startling role reversal: the man billed as a brusque but resolute presence who came into his own in times of danger and anxiety has disappeared from the scene. And the one who was supposed to be cuddly and consumed with lightweight lifestyle issues is bestriding the world stage handing out ultimatums to an aggressive superpower.
In the United States, the story is taking a more predictable but no less riveting course. John McCain was always going to be the net gainer in a foreign crisis. Not only does he have precisely the experience - both personal and political - of coping with war and international threat, but his manner and his presence seem designed to be both reassuring and inspiring.
More here
***********************
The Great Depression Hoax
I slapped the side of my television in April when economist Joe Stiglitz called this the worst recession "since the Great Depression." But now the economy is not only hurting homeowners; it's apparently harming parakeets, too! An AP item reports that pet owners are abandoning their furry and feathery friends to animal shelters because they can no longer afford to feed them. Never mind that GDP is puttering along in positive terrain. Headlines still scream that we're closing in on 1929, not 2009.
Are we a nation of whiners, as Phil Gramm put it a little while ago, getting himself kicked off John McCain's advisory team? No, the American public is not whining. One reason may be that consumers are swallowing $13 billion of pick-me-uppers like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. (A doctor friend who volunteered at a sleepaway camp said that, every morning, 20% of the kids lined up for their psychomeds.) More likely, though, Americans are just leaving the whining to pundits and trend reporters. The fellow who filed the pet story did not bother to point out that, in this alleged new Great Depression, the Pet Products Manufacturers Association says that Americans have spent 5% more this year on their pooches and pussies than last year.
Where are the Hoovervilles camped out under the Washington Monument? Where are the soup lines? Willie Nelson is still on tour, beseeching us to save the family farm. But it must be tougher for him to gin up support when the typical American farm, thanks in part to ever expanding ethanol subsidies, has see its annual income surge 50% past its 10-year average. Apparently Willie is traveling on a biodiesel, soybean-fed bus. So now we know at least what Willie's bus is smoking.
The fact is that most Americans get up in the morning to work hard, feed their families and pay for soccer uniforms and maybe a vacation, if they can stand the security lines at the airport. Most Americans don't let whining get in the way of work. That separates us from the French, who would join a picket line to protest against picket lines. The problem with whining, as with socialism, is that it requires too many evenings. And forget about the organized whining that we know as social activism. That requires too many meetings and too many covered-dish dinners too. I'm still not sure what Barack Obama accomplished as a professional "community organizer." I doubt he was another Martin Luther King, but I'm pretty certain he carried a lot of macaroni salad.
Sure, we gripe about higher food prices and shaky home prices, but we are still living "La Vida Latte," lining up every morning before a barista and otherwise indulging in the imperatives of the good life. Yes, the share price of Starbucks has sunk of late, but Americans spent more, not less, at Starbucks last year than the year before. And if you add premium coffee sales at McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, the growth rate of this liquid luxury has soared. I should point out that the price of a Starbucks latte is about $1,200 a barrel. Makes that SUV fill-up a little easier to swallow, doesn't it?
More here
***********************
ELSEWHERE
Believe it or not, the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy has come out in defence of Hillary! See the video here.
Beijing Olympics: British athletes do well: "Britain's athletes have won four more gold medals in Beijing as their remarkable success over the weekend is hailed as the "greatest in British Olympics history". Sailors, cyclists, rowers and a teenage swimmer claimed eight golds in 48 hours and placed Britain third in the medal table ahead of Australia and Germany. Britain now has 11 gold - more than Athens - five silver and seven bronze medals to its name with another week to go. The homegrown Olympic squad is tipped to win a possible eight more golds. Prime minister Gordon Brown described the weekend as "unprecedented", while Buckingham Palace said the Queen was taking such an interest she had decided to invite all the Olympians to a reception on their return". [I suppose I expose myself to the charge of being curmudgeonly but I feel that I should note that the triumphs were no accident. Britain has spent a huge amount of charity money on preparing its athletes. Whether that is a good use for charity money I will leave for others to judge]
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Monday, August 18, 2008
Profanity greater on liberal blogs
Are liberals more profane than conservatives? Online, the answer seems to be yes. Profanity, those taboo words banned from the broadcast airwaves, is a feature of many people's daily lives. It's much less so in the establishment media world. TV and radio broadcasts are legally prohibited from using it, most newspapers (including this one) have traditionally refrained from its usage.
That's not the case with the Web, where bloggers and readers face no such restrictions. That likely comes as no surprise; what may be surprising, however, is to what degree profanity seems to be a feature more common on one side of the political blogosphere than the other. Which side is that? For answers, I turned to the search engine Google to see how common swearing is in the right and left blog universes by looking up the late stand-up comic George Carlin's "seven dirty words" in the most popular blog communities.
The results showed that online liberals tend to use profanity a lot more than online conservatives. (Before I get further into the results, let me say that I am deliberately making a distinction between blogs that do not usually allow readers to make comments and those that do. This means that some sites, such as the popular Instapundit or Newsmax, were not included.)
Searching for Mr. Carlin's seven words and some popular variants at the top 10 conservative Web communities yields about 70,000 results. That is dwarfed in comparison to the 1.9 million instances of profanity on liberal sites. Things aren't quite that clear-cut, however, since some Web sites have more pages than others. According to Google, the top 10 conservative sites have about 6 million pages, while the top 10 liberal sites have about 13 million.
Dividing the number of instances of profanity by the number of pages of the sites on which they appear, then multiplying the result by 100 yields what might be called a "profanity quotient." The top 10 liberal sites (Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Democratic Underground, Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Atrios, Greenwald, MyDD and Firedoglake) have a profanity quotient of 14.6. The top 10 conservative sites (Free Republic, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs, Townhall, NewsBusters, Lucianne.com, Wizbang, Ace of Spades, Red State and Volokh Conspiracy) have a quotient of 1.17. That's quite a disparity. Liberals are more than 12 times likely to use profanity than conservatives on the Web.
More here
None of this is surprising in view of the basic psychology of Left and Right. The Left are full of hate and anger -- and profanity is a normal byproduct of hate and anger. Conservatives are calm enough to think. Leftists just emote. It's another part of the Leftist tendency to substitute abuse for reasoned argument
****************************
That Rightward swing that comes with age and experience
Wow! This is a good example. The almost libertarian article below was written by none other than George McGovern, in the 1970s a far Leftist and Democratic party Presidential candidate. He really gets it now
Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages. With liberalized credit rules, many people with limited income could access a mortgage and choose, for the first time, if they wanted to own a home. And most of those who chose to do so are hanging on to their mortgages. According to the national delinquency survey released yesterday, the vast majority of subprime, adjustable-rate mortgages are in good condition,their holders neither delinquent nor in default.
There's no question, however, that delinquency and default rates are far too high. But some of this is due to bad investment decisions by real-estate speculators. These losses are not unlike the risks taken every day in the stock market. The real question for policy makers is how to protect those worthy borrowers who are struggling, without throwing out a system that works fine for the majority of its users (all of whom have freely chosen to use it). If the tub is more baby than bathwater, we should think twice about dumping everything out.
Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned: Many people can't afford the gold-plated health plans that are the only options available in their states. Buying health insurance on the Internet and across state lines, where less expensive plans may be available, is prohibited by many state insurance commissions. Despite being able to buy car or home insurance with a mouse click, some state governments require their approved plans for purchase or none at all. It's as if states dictated that you had to buy a Mercedes or no car at all.
Economic paternalism takes its newest form with the campaign against short-term small loans, commonly known as "payday lending." With payday lending, people in need of immediate money can borrow against their future paychecks, allowing emergency purchases or bill payments they could not otherwise make. The service comes at the cost of a significant fee -- usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for two weeks. But the cost seems reasonable when all your other options, such as bounced checks or skipped credit-card payments, are obviously more expensive and play havoc with your credit rating.
Anguished at the fact that payday lending isn't perfect, some people would outlaw the service entirely, or cap fees at such low levels that no lender will provide the service. Anyone who's familiar with the law of unintended consequences should be able to guess what happens next. Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York went one step further and laid the data out: Payday lending bans simply push low-income borrowers into less pleasant options, including increased rates of bankruptcy. Net result: After a lending ban, the consumer has the same amount of debt but fewer ways to manage it.
Since leaving office I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society. Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.
The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.
Source
***********************
ELSEWHERE
Cellphones in the sky?: "With airlines now racing to provide Internet service to their cramped, tired, and often late passengers (think of it as a small bone thrown to a very hungry dog) and the European Union already giving the A OK to dialing in the sky, it may not be long before passengers in the US will also be able to chatter away on their cellphones at 30,000 feet. Even a year ago, the notion seemed improbable. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had banned it; questions remained about its safety; and polls showed Americans were overwhelmingly opposed to it, as much as 70 percent in some surveys. But like the ever expanding options available on the phones themselves, things change."
UK: Ex-drugs policy director calls for legalisation: "A former senior civil servant who was responsible for coordinating the government's anti-drugs policy now believes that legalisation would be less harmful than the current strategy. Julian Critchley, the former director of the Cabinet Office's anti-drugs unit, also said that his views were shared by the 'overwhelming majority' of professionals in the field, including police officers, health workers and members of the government."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Are liberals more profane than conservatives? Online, the answer seems to be yes. Profanity, those taboo words banned from the broadcast airwaves, is a feature of many people's daily lives. It's much less so in the establishment media world. TV and radio broadcasts are legally prohibited from using it, most newspapers (including this one) have traditionally refrained from its usage.
That's not the case with the Web, where bloggers and readers face no such restrictions. That likely comes as no surprise; what may be surprising, however, is to what degree profanity seems to be a feature more common on one side of the political blogosphere than the other. Which side is that? For answers, I turned to the search engine Google to see how common swearing is in the right and left blog universes by looking up the late stand-up comic George Carlin's "seven dirty words" in the most popular blog communities.
The results showed that online liberals tend to use profanity a lot more than online conservatives. (Before I get further into the results, let me say that I am deliberately making a distinction between blogs that do not usually allow readers to make comments and those that do. This means that some sites, such as the popular Instapundit or Newsmax, were not included.)
Searching for Mr. Carlin's seven words and some popular variants at the top 10 conservative Web communities yields about 70,000 results. That is dwarfed in comparison to the 1.9 million instances of profanity on liberal sites. Things aren't quite that clear-cut, however, since some Web sites have more pages than others. According to Google, the top 10 conservative sites have about 6 million pages, while the top 10 liberal sites have about 13 million.
Dividing the number of instances of profanity by the number of pages of the sites on which they appear, then multiplying the result by 100 yields what might be called a "profanity quotient." The top 10 liberal sites (Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Democratic Underground, Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Atrios, Greenwald, MyDD and Firedoglake) have a profanity quotient of 14.6. The top 10 conservative sites (Free Republic, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs, Townhall, NewsBusters, Lucianne.com, Wizbang, Ace of Spades, Red State and Volokh Conspiracy) have a quotient of 1.17. That's quite a disparity. Liberals are more than 12 times likely to use profanity than conservatives on the Web.
More here
None of this is surprising in view of the basic psychology of Left and Right. The Left are full of hate and anger -- and profanity is a normal byproduct of hate and anger. Conservatives are calm enough to think. Leftists just emote. It's another part of the Leftist tendency to substitute abuse for reasoned argument
****************************
That Rightward swing that comes with age and experience
Wow! This is a good example. The almost libertarian article below was written by none other than George McGovern, in the 1970s a far Leftist and Democratic party Presidential candidate. He really gets it now
Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages. With liberalized credit rules, many people with limited income could access a mortgage and choose, for the first time, if they wanted to own a home. And most of those who chose to do so are hanging on to their mortgages. According to the national delinquency survey released yesterday, the vast majority of subprime, adjustable-rate mortgages are in good condition,their holders neither delinquent nor in default.
There's no question, however, that delinquency and default rates are far too high. But some of this is due to bad investment decisions by real-estate speculators. These losses are not unlike the risks taken every day in the stock market. The real question for policy makers is how to protect those worthy borrowers who are struggling, without throwing out a system that works fine for the majority of its users (all of whom have freely chosen to use it). If the tub is more baby than bathwater, we should think twice about dumping everything out.
Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned: Many people can't afford the gold-plated health plans that are the only options available in their states. Buying health insurance on the Internet and across state lines, where less expensive plans may be available, is prohibited by many state insurance commissions. Despite being able to buy car or home insurance with a mouse click, some state governments require their approved plans for purchase or none at all. It's as if states dictated that you had to buy a Mercedes or no car at all.
Economic paternalism takes its newest form with the campaign against short-term small loans, commonly known as "payday lending." With payday lending, people in need of immediate money can borrow against their future paychecks, allowing emergency purchases or bill payments they could not otherwise make. The service comes at the cost of a significant fee -- usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for two weeks. But the cost seems reasonable when all your other options, such as bounced checks or skipped credit-card payments, are obviously more expensive and play havoc with your credit rating.
Anguished at the fact that payday lending isn't perfect, some people would outlaw the service entirely, or cap fees at such low levels that no lender will provide the service. Anyone who's familiar with the law of unintended consequences should be able to guess what happens next. Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York went one step further and laid the data out: Payday lending bans simply push low-income borrowers into less pleasant options, including increased rates of bankruptcy. Net result: After a lending ban, the consumer has the same amount of debt but fewer ways to manage it.
Since leaving office I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society. Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.
The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.
Source
***********************
ELSEWHERE
Cellphones in the sky?: "With airlines now racing to provide Internet service to their cramped, tired, and often late passengers (think of it as a small bone thrown to a very hungry dog) and the European Union already giving the A OK to dialing in the sky, it may not be long before passengers in the US will also be able to chatter away on their cellphones at 30,000 feet. Even a year ago, the notion seemed improbable. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had banned it; questions remained about its safety; and polls showed Americans were overwhelmingly opposed to it, as much as 70 percent in some surveys. But like the ever expanding options available on the phones themselves, things change."
UK: Ex-drugs policy director calls for legalisation: "A former senior civil servant who was responsible for coordinating the government's anti-drugs policy now believes that legalisation would be less harmful than the current strategy. Julian Critchley, the former director of the Cabinet Office's anti-drugs unit, also said that his views were shared by the 'overwhelming majority' of professionals in the field, including police officers, health workers and members of the government."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Google are being evil
My OBAMA WATCH blog has been spam-tagged for 5 days now. That is extraordinary. In the past, one or two days have sufficed to get the tagging lifted.
The blog is still perfectly readable and I can post to it but I have to go through a rigamarole every time I want to post.
I have both sent in an unblocking request and emailed them but no response. I have to think it is deliberate. The Google bosses LOVE Obama.
My OBAMA WATCH blog has been spam-tagged for 5 days now. That is extraordinary. In the past, one or two days have sufficed to get the tagging lifted.
The blog is still perfectly readable and I can post to it but I have to go through a rigamarole every time I want to post.
I have both sent in an unblocking request and emailed them but no response. I have to think it is deliberate. The Google bosses LOVE Obama.
Leftism is essentially parasitical
My theory is that many self styled "authorities" defend their doctrines, often more deliberate than erroneous, as if they were defending their lives because they are defending their lives. The false authority is dependent on the work of other people for their survival and well being. Without the blind obedience of productive people the false authority would wither away and die. To the parasite power over the productive is life.
These self appointed intellectuals, whom Ayn Rand had labeled as Witch Doctors, claim the position of authority in a division of labor economy through the claim of being in possession of superior knowledge. Such so called superior knowledge must by necessity contradict the knowledge gained by direct perception of objective (commonly perceived) reality.
Against the entirely valid charge of fraud the intellectual con artist will claim that his perception of reality differs from that of the common man. One practice, which began with the original aboriginal witch doctors, is to claim that self appointed authority is perceiving or is otherwise in contact with a higher or spiritual level of reality. This practice continues to this day in the scam religions of Islam and Scientology.
The materialist version of the false authority con operates on the practice of polylogism, the claim that members of different groups perceive differently. What is true for one group is false for another group. Thus what is true for Jews is claimed to be false for Aryans. The practice of polylogism is not confined to issues of race (such as Africans versus "Crackers"), it can be applied to conflicts of class (Proletarians versus the Bourgeoisie), gender ("Womyn" versus "Sperm Donors"), and national culture (The French versus everyone else*).
But since Man is an entity of both spirit and body the most effective, and thus destructive, version of the different knowledge con will combine both the claim of spiritual wisdom and material polylogism. This occurs in the notion that a group has a distinct consciousness whose will is embodied in a leader. Thus the claim that Adolf Hitler embodied the will of the Volk, Josef Stalin embodied the will of the Proletariat, Hillary Clinton embodied the will of all Womyn, and that Barack Obama embodies the will of the functionally dumb.**
And if this wasn't bad enough there are now false authorities who claim to represent something other than a human population, such as the Gaianist witch doctor Al Gore.
It is essential for the survival of human society that false authorities be identified and rendered unable to cause further harm to us. Of course if they are also buried that would be fine with me.
* I'm really serious here. The French as a nation have a long history of insisting on being different and claiming it's a superior practice. A case in point is that at the beginning of the First World War is that while all other nations had adopted earth toned uniforms for their soldiers the French politicians INSISTED that their soldiers go into combat with the traditional dark blue coats and bright red trousers. As you can imagine this didn't work out well for the French Army. The French also had the best bayonets mounted on the worst rifle, but that's another story.
** There is simply no other way that anyone could support a Harvard indoctrinated Marxist empty suit from the Chicago Democratic Machine.
Source
***********************
ELSEWHERE
SOME of her ideas were understandable: "Long before Aafia Siddique was arrested in Afghanistan last month, allegedly in possession of a list of New York targets and chem-bio weapons information, she had allegedly developed a plot, however improbable or amateurish, to kill Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush and to attack the White House. Siddique plotted to use weapons that included biological agents to contaminate former president Carter's water, according to multiple federal sources."
Britain today: "Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be $160 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words "tequila slammer" would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even foods, that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state's whim. They'd have thought you a paranoid loon."
British bureaucrats condemn 4-year-olds: "School inspectors have written to children as young as 4 warning them that they were not learning enough to prepare them for their adult lives. The letters, from Ofsted, the education watchdog, were written in simple English as part of a drive for transparency on how schools are performing. Pupils at a primary school in Nottinghamshire that had been placed under special measures were told that they were failing in core subjects. The children were told to make more effort to behave in class. A letters to pupils in West Yorkshire read: "We decided that the school needs to be helped to improve. Most aspects of the school's work are not good enough." Children in London were told: "You need to improve your writing and maths to help you get jobs when you are older."
Open ANWR already!: "The media constantly repeat the claim that it would take a decade to get the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) into oil production and about as long for offshore continental oil to start flowing. Most accounts promote the views of extreme environmentalists to make the issue appear so hopeless that we must instead 'change our way of life' rather than tap into proven oil reserves. In July, CNN repeatedly reported that offshore drilling would take 'seven to 10 years' to get into production. Yet Brazil's Petrobras expects its new finds in extraordinarily deep waters to already be producing 100,000 barrels per day in just two years. What is wrong with American oil companies that they would take so long? In fact, the world oil shortage is political, not geological."
Union sellout in Colorado: "For the sliver of American 'working' men and women who belong to unions (because if you're not in a union you're not working, apparently) there is some good news from Colorado: According to Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute, 'As of today, the entirety of Colorado state government is officially unionized.' How do they do it? First, Democratic Governor Bill Ritter signed an executive order ('state employee partnerships') last year rather than allowing a debate in the legislature or bringing the issue to the people. Then, 7,669 workers imposed unionization and so-called 'protections' on 24,305 workers who didn't vote for it. Presto, the state of Colorado is ready for the Democratic National Convention."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
My theory is that many self styled "authorities" defend their doctrines, often more deliberate than erroneous, as if they were defending their lives because they are defending their lives. The false authority is dependent on the work of other people for their survival and well being. Without the blind obedience of productive people the false authority would wither away and die. To the parasite power over the productive is life.
These self appointed intellectuals, whom Ayn Rand had labeled as Witch Doctors, claim the position of authority in a division of labor economy through the claim of being in possession of superior knowledge. Such so called superior knowledge must by necessity contradict the knowledge gained by direct perception of objective (commonly perceived) reality.
Against the entirely valid charge of fraud the intellectual con artist will claim that his perception of reality differs from that of the common man. One practice, which began with the original aboriginal witch doctors, is to claim that self appointed authority is perceiving or is otherwise in contact with a higher or spiritual level of reality. This practice continues to this day in the scam religions of Islam and Scientology.
The materialist version of the false authority con operates on the practice of polylogism, the claim that members of different groups perceive differently. What is true for one group is false for another group. Thus what is true for Jews is claimed to be false for Aryans. The practice of polylogism is not confined to issues of race (such as Africans versus "Crackers"), it can be applied to conflicts of class (Proletarians versus the Bourgeoisie), gender ("Womyn" versus "Sperm Donors"), and national culture (The French versus everyone else*).
But since Man is an entity of both spirit and body the most effective, and thus destructive, version of the different knowledge con will combine both the claim of spiritual wisdom and material polylogism. This occurs in the notion that a group has a distinct consciousness whose will is embodied in a leader. Thus the claim that Adolf Hitler embodied the will of the Volk, Josef Stalin embodied the will of the Proletariat, Hillary Clinton embodied the will of all Womyn, and that Barack Obama embodies the will of the functionally dumb.**
And if this wasn't bad enough there are now false authorities who claim to represent something other than a human population, such as the Gaianist witch doctor Al Gore.
It is essential for the survival of human society that false authorities be identified and rendered unable to cause further harm to us. Of course if they are also buried that would be fine with me.
* I'm really serious here. The French as a nation have a long history of insisting on being different and claiming it's a superior practice. A case in point is that at the beginning of the First World War is that while all other nations had adopted earth toned uniforms for their soldiers the French politicians INSISTED that their soldiers go into combat with the traditional dark blue coats and bright red trousers. As you can imagine this didn't work out well for the French Army. The French also had the best bayonets mounted on the worst rifle, but that's another story.
** There is simply no other way that anyone could support a Harvard indoctrinated Marxist empty suit from the Chicago Democratic Machine.
Source
***********************
ELSEWHERE
SOME of her ideas were understandable: "Long before Aafia Siddique was arrested in Afghanistan last month, allegedly in possession of a list of New York targets and chem-bio weapons information, she had allegedly developed a plot, however improbable or amateurish, to kill Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush and to attack the White House. Siddique plotted to use weapons that included biological agents to contaminate former president Carter's water, according to multiple federal sources."
Britain today: "Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub or bus shelter or your own vehicle or that there would be $160 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words "tequila slammer" would be illegal or the government would mandate what angle a drinker's head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even foods, that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state's whim. They'd have thought you a paranoid loon."
British bureaucrats condemn 4-year-olds: "School inspectors have written to children as young as 4 warning them that they were not learning enough to prepare them for their adult lives. The letters, from Ofsted, the education watchdog, were written in simple English as part of a drive for transparency on how schools are performing. Pupils at a primary school in Nottinghamshire that had been placed under special measures were told that they were failing in core subjects. The children were told to make more effort to behave in class. A letters to pupils in West Yorkshire read: "We decided that the school needs to be helped to improve. Most aspects of the school's work are not good enough." Children in London were told: "You need to improve your writing and maths to help you get jobs when you are older."
Open ANWR already!: "The media constantly repeat the claim that it would take a decade to get the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) into oil production and about as long for offshore continental oil to start flowing. Most accounts promote the views of extreme environmentalists to make the issue appear so hopeless that we must instead 'change our way of life' rather than tap into proven oil reserves. In July, CNN repeatedly reported that offshore drilling would take 'seven to 10 years' to get into production. Yet Brazil's Petrobras expects its new finds in extraordinarily deep waters to already be producing 100,000 barrels per day in just two years. What is wrong with American oil companies that they would take so long? In fact, the world oil shortage is political, not geological."
Union sellout in Colorado: "For the sliver of American 'working' men and women who belong to unions (because if you're not in a union you're not working, apparently) there is some good news from Colorado: According to Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute, 'As of today, the entirety of Colorado state government is officially unionized.' How do they do it? First, Democratic Governor Bill Ritter signed an executive order ('state employee partnerships') last year rather than allowing a debate in the legislature or bringing the issue to the people. Then, 7,669 workers imposed unionization and so-called 'protections' on 24,305 workers who didn't vote for it. Presto, the state of Colorado is ready for the Democratic National Convention."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Putin's Rules, or Ours?
Is it only a coincidence that Vladimir Putin launched a tank invasion of Georgia inside the week that Alexander Solzhenitsyn died? It was said countless times that Solzhenitsyn's truth-telling began the collapse of Soviet communism. As Vladimir Putin watched his tanks threaten Tbilisi yesterday, he must have thought that the post-Solzhenitsyn world is fine with him. He and the men in his orbit are unimaginably rich for seeing the world through the bloodless eyes of a Saudi prince.
Unburdened of the exhausting task of enforcing Soviet ideology, Putin's Russia got its hands around the energy-needy throats of Germans, the French, Italians and many other Europeans. London's clubs and the sunshiny resorts of Europe make for pleasant Russian playgrounds. Europe's natural-gas users will pay the tab forever.
The New Russians now in Georgia are shaping a new world with rules based on the old Russian brutalisms. Their political instruments include the eternal silence of murder, routine energy-supply blackmail, and this week a revival of the massed-tank strategies of 1956 and 1968.
Deafening is the sound of scales falling from Western eyes, though it's worth noting how few commentaries about the post-Georgia reality have mentioned the wolves already inside the West -- the terror brigades of radical Islam. Iran's mullahs watch and wait; they'll grab the Gulf once it is clear the West won't resist. Soon?
There is an alternative to this dark opposition, whose goal is to displace the order that served the world well in the 60-year postwar era. The alternative is Georgia. After Mikheil Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia in 2004 at age 36, he and his young colleagues began a crash program to integrate their nation into the global world order. Georgia has tried to become both a democracy and free-market economy. It's worth noting that like Mr. Saakashvili, a Columbia Law graduate who came to the U.S. from Georgia on a State Department Muskie Fellowship, many of his young ministers were schooled at places like Duke, Southern Methodist, Indiana or in Tel Aviv, Israel. Surely many such foreign students must ponder the evident success of the U.S. The young Georgians did.
They returned to Tbilisi and with Mr. Saakashvili began to erect, piece by piece, a political, economic and financial system that could plug itself smoothly into the ones already running in the West. On balance, they've succeeded. Growth last year was about 12%. Foreign investment flows have been high..... What Georgia represents is an independent nation that has worked hard to be part of the established civilized order, rather than contribute to the chaotic and violent frictions that seem on the verge of constantly overwhelming the world. Putin's Russia is a manufacturer of frictions.
Some argue that Georgia is not a primary American interest. They see Georgia as ultimately a place that transits oil and gas through pipelines from somewhere else to Turkey or onto Europe. Georgia is unlucky geography. This is false. When this crisis ends, Georgia will be either a model for a world that works or a world whose members do business with knives.
More here
*******************************
ELSEWHERE
Russia: Georgia can "forget" regaining provinces: "The foreign minister of Russia said Thursday that Georgia could 'forget about' getting back its two breakaway provinces, and the former Soviet republic remained on edge as Russia sent tank columns to search out and destroy Georgian military equipment. Uncertainty about Russia's intentions and back-and-forth charges clouded the conflict two days after Russia and Georgia signaled acceptance of a French-brokered cease-fire, and a week after Georgia's crackdown on the two provinces drew a Russian military response."
Poland Spring: "Russia's invasion of Georgia seems to have concentrated the minds of at least some politicians in Europe. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Thursday that his country had agreed to host 10 American missile-defense interceptors. The agreement comes along with an enhanced promise of mutual defense between the U.S. and Poland. Poland is already a member of NATO, whose linchpin is a promise of mutual aid in case of attack. But Mr. Tusk made it clear that, in light of the West's anemic initial response to the Russian invasion, he wanted more. "It is no good when assistance comes to dead people," Mr. Tusk said, as far too many Georgians have learned. NATO, he feared, would take "days, weeks" to mobilize a response to aggression against Poland. The missile-defense agreement comes after a year and a half of back-and-forth and domestic political squabbling in Poland."
America the Uncompetitive: "The new international tax rankings are out for 2008, and congratulations to Washington, D.C., are again in order. Our political class has managed to maintain America's rank with the second highest corporate tax rate in the world at 39.3% (average combined federal and state). Only Japan is slightly higher overall, though if you are silly enough to base a corporation in California, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or other states with high corporate levies, your tax rate on business income is even higher than in Tokyo. For the first time, the U.S. statutory rate is now 50% higher than the average of our international competitors"
Gloomy Leftists: "Why are optimists about the state of the world disproportionately represented by classical liberals, libertarians, and free- market conservatives, while pessimists about the state of the world are disproportionately represented by statists?This pattern is so familiar that it eludes our attention. And yet reflection on it is fascinating. There's no obvious reason why persons on the left should be biased into perceiving the state of the current world to be especially dire, and no obvious reason why market-friendly people should be biased into perceiving roses where there is really only rot."
I game the credit card system. So should you : "The beautiful thing about credit cards is how easy they make it for responsible consumers to take unfair advantage of banks and businesses. Some cards offer low `teaser' interest rates -- as low as 0 percent -- for balance transfers, purchases, or even cash advances. We take that cheap money, and when we pay off the balance before the promotion period ends, the card companies actually lose money. We also use credit cards to make shopping more convenient. Just swipe, sign, and go. By paying our bill in full each month, we earn frequent-flyer miles or even cash back without paying the company a cent in interest or fees."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Is it only a coincidence that Vladimir Putin launched a tank invasion of Georgia inside the week that Alexander Solzhenitsyn died? It was said countless times that Solzhenitsyn's truth-telling began the collapse of Soviet communism. As Vladimir Putin watched his tanks threaten Tbilisi yesterday, he must have thought that the post-Solzhenitsyn world is fine with him. He and the men in his orbit are unimaginably rich for seeing the world through the bloodless eyes of a Saudi prince.
Unburdened of the exhausting task of enforcing Soviet ideology, Putin's Russia got its hands around the energy-needy throats of Germans, the French, Italians and many other Europeans. London's clubs and the sunshiny resorts of Europe make for pleasant Russian playgrounds. Europe's natural-gas users will pay the tab forever.
The New Russians now in Georgia are shaping a new world with rules based on the old Russian brutalisms. Their political instruments include the eternal silence of murder, routine energy-supply blackmail, and this week a revival of the massed-tank strategies of 1956 and 1968.
Deafening is the sound of scales falling from Western eyes, though it's worth noting how few commentaries about the post-Georgia reality have mentioned the wolves already inside the West -- the terror brigades of radical Islam. Iran's mullahs watch and wait; they'll grab the Gulf once it is clear the West won't resist. Soon?
There is an alternative to this dark opposition, whose goal is to displace the order that served the world well in the 60-year postwar era. The alternative is Georgia. After Mikheil Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia in 2004 at age 36, he and his young colleagues began a crash program to integrate their nation into the global world order. Georgia has tried to become both a democracy and free-market economy. It's worth noting that like Mr. Saakashvili, a Columbia Law graduate who came to the U.S. from Georgia on a State Department Muskie Fellowship, many of his young ministers were schooled at places like Duke, Southern Methodist, Indiana or in Tel Aviv, Israel. Surely many such foreign students must ponder the evident success of the U.S. The young Georgians did.
They returned to Tbilisi and with Mr. Saakashvili began to erect, piece by piece, a political, economic and financial system that could plug itself smoothly into the ones already running in the West. On balance, they've succeeded. Growth last year was about 12%. Foreign investment flows have been high..... What Georgia represents is an independent nation that has worked hard to be part of the established civilized order, rather than contribute to the chaotic and violent frictions that seem on the verge of constantly overwhelming the world. Putin's Russia is a manufacturer of frictions.
Some argue that Georgia is not a primary American interest. They see Georgia as ultimately a place that transits oil and gas through pipelines from somewhere else to Turkey or onto Europe. Georgia is unlucky geography. This is false. When this crisis ends, Georgia will be either a model for a world that works or a world whose members do business with knives.
More here
*******************************
ELSEWHERE
Russia: Georgia can "forget" regaining provinces: "The foreign minister of Russia said Thursday that Georgia could 'forget about' getting back its two breakaway provinces, and the former Soviet republic remained on edge as Russia sent tank columns to search out and destroy Georgian military equipment. Uncertainty about Russia's intentions and back-and-forth charges clouded the conflict two days after Russia and Georgia signaled acceptance of a French-brokered cease-fire, and a week after Georgia's crackdown on the two provinces drew a Russian military response."
Poland Spring: "Russia's invasion of Georgia seems to have concentrated the minds of at least some politicians in Europe. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Thursday that his country had agreed to host 10 American missile-defense interceptors. The agreement comes along with an enhanced promise of mutual defense between the U.S. and Poland. Poland is already a member of NATO, whose linchpin is a promise of mutual aid in case of attack. But Mr. Tusk made it clear that, in light of the West's anemic initial response to the Russian invasion, he wanted more. "It is no good when assistance comes to dead people," Mr. Tusk said, as far too many Georgians have learned. NATO, he feared, would take "days, weeks" to mobilize a response to aggression against Poland. The missile-defense agreement comes after a year and a half of back-and-forth and domestic political squabbling in Poland."
America the Uncompetitive: "The new international tax rankings are out for 2008, and congratulations to Washington, D.C., are again in order. Our political class has managed to maintain America's rank with the second highest corporate tax rate in the world at 39.3% (average combined federal and state). Only Japan is slightly higher overall, though if you are silly enough to base a corporation in California, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or other states with high corporate levies, your tax rate on business income is even higher than in Tokyo. For the first time, the U.S. statutory rate is now 50% higher than the average of our international competitors"
Gloomy Leftists: "Why are optimists about the state of the world disproportionately represented by classical liberals, libertarians, and free- market conservatives, while pessimists about the state of the world are disproportionately represented by statists?This pattern is so familiar that it eludes our attention. And yet reflection on it is fascinating. There's no obvious reason why persons on the left should be biased into perceiving the state of the current world to be especially dire, and no obvious reason why market-friendly people should be biased into perceiving roses where there is really only rot."
I game the credit card system. So should you : "The beautiful thing about credit cards is how easy they make it for responsible consumers to take unfair advantage of banks and businesses. Some cards offer low `teaser' interest rates -- as low as 0 percent -- for balance transfers, purchases, or even cash advances. We take that cheap money, and when we pay off the balance before the promotion period ends, the card companies actually lose money. We also use credit cards to make shopping more convenient. Just swipe, sign, and go. By paying our bill in full each month, we earn frequent-flyer miles or even cash back without paying the company a cent in interest or fees."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Friday, August 15, 2008
Google being pesky again
It is now three days since I asked for the spam blog status of my OBAMA WATCH blog to be lifted. At least I am not blocked totally from it. I can post but to post I have to do a "copy the letters" task.
I might not mind so much if the letters were easy to copy but I had to have four goes to get it right tonight.
I don't know what they are up to. I have been through this rigamarole a few times before and it has never previously taken so long to have the nonsense lifted. I guess it does not pay to be critical of the child of light.
It is now three days since I asked for the spam blog status of my OBAMA WATCH blog to be lifted. At least I am not blocked totally from it. I can post but to post I have to do a "copy the letters" task.
I might not mind so much if the letters were easy to copy but I had to have four goes to get it right tonight.
I don't know what they are up to. I have been through this rigamarole a few times before and it has never previously taken so long to have the nonsense lifted. I guess it does not pay to be critical of the child of light.
Americans Lose Confidence in Broadcast Media
A new Rasmussen Reports polls finds 55 percent of Americans believe media bias is a bigger problem than campaign contributions.
For some time now, it has been common knowledge that the broadcast news media are in the tank for Democrats. Specifically, they appear enamored with covering Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and appear more than willing to carry his water as he races across the country in the summer heat.
It's akin to a marathon runner who has his fans in the sidelines, ever-ready with overflowing cups of H2O for their hero as he races towards the finish line. The trouble is: It is unseemly for a purportedly "objective" reporter to behave in such an unseemly-and undignified-manner. And now, it is having an impact on how Americans perceive the credibility of those media outlets.
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that 55 percent of Americans believe media bias is an even bigger problem than big campaign contributions. A full 66 percent believe that it is a bad idea to ban campaign commercials, citing "despite the annoyance factor, it's better to put up with an election-year barrage rather than rely on the news media." In other words, Americans are finally fed up with broadcast media bias, and they know they can no longer depend on it for accurate information about news and politics.
This means of course that broadcast news outlets need to begin taking a page from print journalists, who have been far more objective in their reporting and analysis of candidates and the issues surrounding the campaigns.
Part of the reason for this, admittedly, is that the print medium allows for more to be said about a particular topic. It lends itself to revealing nuances that are often lost in the timed segments to which broadcast outlets are constrained. Nonetheless, when reporters go on the record, admitting to NBC's Brian Williams, for example, how hard it is to remain objective in covering Senator Obama's campaign, or Chris Matthews openly admitting to tingles up his legs when Mr. Obama speaks, it's probably about time to send these "reporters" to take a refresher course in the once-revered Canons of Journalism
Source
***********************
ELSEWHERE
Pickens's Slim Economics: "Folksy oilman T. Boone Pickens has taken to the airwaves with a $58 million campaign to publicize his plan for energy independence. His scheme apparently involves building windmills on the Great Plains to generate electricity. Natural gas that had been previously used for electric generation would then be used to fuel automobiles, thereby allowing us to "break the stranglehold of foreign oil." Pickens's commercial no doubt causes FEE readers' classical-liberal antennae to stand at attention. The word "plan" alone rightly provokes worries of coercive schemes. The notion of being independent of energy or any other commodity from foreign countries goes against the teachings of Smith, Bastiat, and others who recognize the gains from specialization and division of labor. Nor will readers knowledgeable about rent-seeking be surprised that media reports describe Pickens as "heavily invested in natural gas and wind power." And when Pickens states in his commercials that "this plan will work but it needs your help," readers familiar with Public Choice rightly suspect that the sort of help Pickens has in mind is tax dollars."
PETA loons want to advertise vegan message on border fence: "While many view the contentious border fence as a government fiasco, an animal rights group sees a rare opportunity. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans today to announce an unusual marketing pitch to the U.S. government: Rent us space on the fence for billboards warning illegal border crossers there is more to fear than the Border Patrol. The billboards, in English and Spanish, would offer the caution: "If the Border Patrol Doesn't Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will - Go Vegan." "We think that Mexicans and other immigrants should be warned if they cross into the U.S. they are putting their health at risk by leaving behind a healthier, staple diet of corn tortillas, beans, rice, fruits and vegetables," said Lindsay Rajt, assistant manager of PETA's vegan campaigns."
Dems' New National Platform Opposes Defense of Marriage Act : "The 2008 Democratic Party platform draft, which will be submitted to delegates at the Democratic National Convention for approval later this month, expresses opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he wants to repeal. "We will enact a comprehensive bipartisan employment non-discrimination act," says the platform draft. "We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and all attempts to use this issue to divide us." DOMA defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws. Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, DOMA protects states from having to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states"
Britain's newest epidemic: "The knife violence in Britain has reached epidemic proportions according to an article at Dailymail.co.uk, an online news agency in England. . Americans recognize the sensational headlines and use of the term epidemic to describe the actions of common criminals because of articles by the U.S. media that use the same format but vilify guns instead of knives. The nature of this type of news reporting makes it obvious they are used to sway public opinion against guns, or knives or the use of self-defense by the average citizen. When Britain outlawed guns (and self-defense), their elected officials claimed that the impending domestic tranquility would make them the envy of the world."
Bush wants some endangered species rules extinct: "Just months before President Bush leaves office, his administration is antagonizing environmentalists by proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants. The proposal, first reported by The Associated Press, would cut out the advice of government scientists who have been weighing in on such decisions for 35 years. Agencies also could not consider a project's contribution to global warming in their analysis".
Churches ordered closed during Olympics: "An organization founded by a man who escaped from China after being persecuted for his Christian faith says it has uncovered a secret Chinese government document demanding that churches shut their doors for 90 days around the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "Should church members violate these rules they will be subject to the disciplinary actions of the Chinese government," said the report from China Aid Association, an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians. "Pastors were forced to sign a written agreement that they would not participate in religious services while the Olympic Games are taking place in China," the organization said. "The document, drafted by Chinese government officials, specifies that the house Churches in China: 'refrain from organizing and joining illegal gatherings and refrain from receiving donations, sermons and preaching from overseas religious organizations and groups that have a purpose.'"
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
A new Rasmussen Reports polls finds 55 percent of Americans believe media bias is a bigger problem than campaign contributions.
For some time now, it has been common knowledge that the broadcast news media are in the tank for Democrats. Specifically, they appear enamored with covering Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and appear more than willing to carry his water as he races across the country in the summer heat.
It's akin to a marathon runner who has his fans in the sidelines, ever-ready with overflowing cups of H2O for their hero as he races towards the finish line. The trouble is: It is unseemly for a purportedly "objective" reporter to behave in such an unseemly-and undignified-manner. And now, it is having an impact on how Americans perceive the credibility of those media outlets.
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that 55 percent of Americans believe media bias is an even bigger problem than big campaign contributions. A full 66 percent believe that it is a bad idea to ban campaign commercials, citing "despite the annoyance factor, it's better to put up with an election-year barrage rather than rely on the news media." In other words, Americans are finally fed up with broadcast media bias, and they know they can no longer depend on it for accurate information about news and politics.
This means of course that broadcast news outlets need to begin taking a page from print journalists, who have been far more objective in their reporting and analysis of candidates and the issues surrounding the campaigns.
Part of the reason for this, admittedly, is that the print medium allows for more to be said about a particular topic. It lends itself to revealing nuances that are often lost in the timed segments to which broadcast outlets are constrained. Nonetheless, when reporters go on the record, admitting to NBC's Brian Williams, for example, how hard it is to remain objective in covering Senator Obama's campaign, or Chris Matthews openly admitting to tingles up his legs when Mr. Obama speaks, it's probably about time to send these "reporters" to take a refresher course in the once-revered Canons of Journalism
Source
***********************
ELSEWHERE
Pickens's Slim Economics: "Folksy oilman T. Boone Pickens has taken to the airwaves with a $58 million campaign to publicize his plan for energy independence. His scheme apparently involves building windmills on the Great Plains to generate electricity. Natural gas that had been previously used for electric generation would then be used to fuel automobiles, thereby allowing us to "break the stranglehold of foreign oil." Pickens's commercial no doubt causes FEE readers' classical-liberal antennae to stand at attention. The word "plan" alone rightly provokes worries of coercive schemes. The notion of being independent of energy or any other commodity from foreign countries goes against the teachings of Smith, Bastiat, and others who recognize the gains from specialization and division of labor. Nor will readers knowledgeable about rent-seeking be surprised that media reports describe Pickens as "heavily invested in natural gas and wind power." And when Pickens states in his commercials that "this plan will work but it needs your help," readers familiar with Public Choice rightly suspect that the sort of help Pickens has in mind is tax dollars."
PETA loons want to advertise vegan message on border fence: "While many view the contentious border fence as a government fiasco, an animal rights group sees a rare opportunity. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans today to announce an unusual marketing pitch to the U.S. government: Rent us space on the fence for billboards warning illegal border crossers there is more to fear than the Border Patrol. The billboards, in English and Spanish, would offer the caution: "If the Border Patrol Doesn't Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will - Go Vegan." "We think that Mexicans and other immigrants should be warned if they cross into the U.S. they are putting their health at risk by leaving behind a healthier, staple diet of corn tortillas, beans, rice, fruits and vegetables," said Lindsay Rajt, assistant manager of PETA's vegan campaigns."
Dems' New National Platform Opposes Defense of Marriage Act : "The 2008 Democratic Party platform draft, which will be submitted to delegates at the Democratic National Convention for approval later this month, expresses opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he wants to repeal. "We will enact a comprehensive bipartisan employment non-discrimination act," says the platform draft. "We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and all attempts to use this issue to divide us." DOMA defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws. Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, DOMA protects states from having to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states"
Britain's newest epidemic: "The knife violence in Britain has reached epidemic proportions according to an article at Dailymail.co.uk, an online news agency in England. . Americans recognize the sensational headlines and use of the term epidemic to describe the actions of common criminals because of articles by the U.S. media that use the same format but vilify guns instead of knives. The nature of this type of news reporting makes it obvious they are used to sway public opinion against guns, or knives or the use of self-defense by the average citizen. When Britain outlawed guns (and self-defense), their elected officials claimed that the impending domestic tranquility would make them the envy of the world."
Bush wants some endangered species rules extinct: "Just months before President Bush leaves office, his administration is antagonizing environmentalists by proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants. The proposal, first reported by The Associated Press, would cut out the advice of government scientists who have been weighing in on such decisions for 35 years. Agencies also could not consider a project's contribution to global warming in their analysis".
Churches ordered closed during Olympics: "An organization founded by a man who escaped from China after being persecuted for his Christian faith says it has uncovered a secret Chinese government document demanding that churches shut their doors for 90 days around the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "Should church members violate these rules they will be subject to the disciplinary actions of the Chinese government," said the report from China Aid Association, an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians. "Pastors were forced to sign a written agreement that they would not participate in religious services while the Olympic Games are taking place in China," the organization said. "The document, drafted by Chinese government officials, specifies that the house Churches in China: 'refrain from organizing and joining illegal gatherings and refrain from receiving donations, sermons and preaching from overseas religious organizations and groups that have a purpose.'"
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Democratic convention chooses nutcase to lead them
Her blackness makes her wise, apparently
The woman commissioned by the Democratic Party to direct its presidential nominating convention in two weeks espouses the same black liberation theology pursued by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose church presumptive nominee Barack Obama was forced to leave because of its controversies. Those included Wright's condemnation of America and a vicious attack on Hillary Clinton from the pulpit, and WND reported when, finally, the Obama campaign announced the candidate resigned his 20-year membership in the church.
Now a profile in the New York Times reveals Rev. Leah Daughtry, a Pentecostal minister who leads a congregation of 20 [Big time!] in Washington, embraces "black liberation theology" beliefs such as the "debt" the U.S. "owes" all blacks for slavery.
The Times describes the congregation in which Daughtry was raised - the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., where generations of family members, including her father Herbert Daughtry, have preached for decades: "Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, 'They Owe Us.' Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry's arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology - the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons - and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her."
Judi McLeod, a former Toronto Sun columnist, opined it will be "Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a skirt" as Daughtry leads the Democratic National Convention in Denver. "While the media hounded Wright for his anti-American rants and while presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Hussein Obama divorced him as his personal pastor, Obama's head will be crowned by Leah Daughtry, who ardently believes in the same Marxist 'Black Liberation Theology' preached by Wright," McLeod wrote on Canada Free Press.
When Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced Daughtry's appointment to the post of convention CEO, he cited her "strong guidance, skilled leadership and counsel."
More here
What a lot of bulldust that last bit is. "Leadership"? She leads only 20 people! She is a failure by church standards. It is another example of the Leftist faith in verbal magic. They think that you can alter the reality by fooling around with the words used to describe it. Angry white men have given her good jobs but that says more about the stupidity of anger than it says about her
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ELSEWHERE
Israel: Rise in homosexual tourism stirs unease : "There is something incongruous about the stretch of beach just under the Hilton Hotel's high perch. For there, below the bluff, are two so-called 'specialty beaches.' The Hassidic beach, surrounded by an eight-foot concrete wall, features a polite sign at its entrance: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are women's bathing days, it announces. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays belong to men. It's the municipality's solution to the ultra-orthodox dilemma of how to body surf without breaking the halachic, Jewish law, prohibition on unmarried members of the opposite sex seeing one another in immodest dress. At the beach directly adjacent to the walled compound, every day is men's bathing day. This is the unofficial gay beach."
What is that 'windfall profits' tax? "What is a "windfall" profit anyway? I would define a windfall profit as profit without any meaningful effort. But Liberals/Socialists have a different definition. They seem to believe any profit above some arbitrary amount is fair game for a windfall profit tax. But profits are good. The profits from companies employ thousands of employees, provide needed products, pay billions in taxes and provide a stable income for investors. The Left likes to single out segments of U.S. economy to attack. These attacks include `big drug', `big agricultural', and now `big oil'. By adding the adjective `big' the Left is trying to demonize those sectors of the economy. How come big government is good and big industry is bad? Simple - the Leftwing politicians can control government but until they can totally control these segments of the economy they are bad. So these Leftwing politicians demonize and attempt to penalize these companies for making a profit. In a free market society profits are good, only in Socialist/Communist controlled societies are profits demonized. But as we slid closer to a Socialist state we will continue to hear profits demonized. There is a blind hatred of profits"
Confused Leftists: "When the War on Drugs succeeds and cocaine prices rise, you don't see the Drug Czar proposing government subsidies for addicts. I don't like his mission, but at least he's honest on this point. He's not out there disrupting supplies one day and then helping addicts pay for their fixes the next. The same can't be said, however, of warriors on oil addiction. Consider green businessman Joseph P. Kennedy II. His nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation pushes an environmentalist agenda of reduced energy use, wind power, and carbon offsets. But it also has a campaign of giving discount heating oil to the poor and elderly. You might have seen its ads on TV, such as the one where a poverty-stricken mother and child, freezing in their unheated home, is saved by Joe and his delivery truck, bringing them oil at 40 percent off. But why is Joe bringing them oil at all, let alone cheap oil? Shouldn't he be bringing them solar panels or manuals on energy conservation, or perhaps a gold star for this family's low carbon footprint?"
Canadian knife registry idea isn't too sharp: "Some of our parliamentarians have been getting a bit too much sun during their summer holidays. That's the only explanation for the discussion by some opposition MPs about the possible introduction of a knife registry, following the gruesome, fatal attack on a Greyhound bus passenger late last month. A knife registry? Really? What would I have to declare, paring knives, a bread knife, the plastic knife I used to put tuna on crackers while I was having lunch at work the other day? Most knives are sharp. That helps them serve their purpose, you know, to cut things. There would be no way to single out knives that are used for hunting and ones used to cut chicken for that stir-fry you're making for dinner. Or ones used to, say, kill people. I'm not going to say the gun registry has turned out well, but I think there's a need to register firearms."
Partial backdown under pressure by Pelosi: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House. Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a “hoax.” But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote. “They have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas,” Pelosi said. “We can do that. We can have a vote on that.” She indicated such a vote would have to be part of a larger package that included other policies, like releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which she said could bring down prices in a matter of days.... She even indicated that she might support a package that includes drilling. She said her decision on whether to support such legislation would depend on how the policies are packaged. “It’s not excluded, let’s put it that way,” Pelosi said."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
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Her blackness makes her wise, apparently
The woman commissioned by the Democratic Party to direct its presidential nominating convention in two weeks espouses the same black liberation theology pursued by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose church presumptive nominee Barack Obama was forced to leave because of its controversies. Those included Wright's condemnation of America and a vicious attack on Hillary Clinton from the pulpit, and WND reported when, finally, the Obama campaign announced the candidate resigned his 20-year membership in the church.
Now a profile in the New York Times reveals Rev. Leah Daughtry, a Pentecostal minister who leads a congregation of 20 [Big time!] in Washington, embraces "black liberation theology" beliefs such as the "debt" the U.S. "owes" all blacks for slavery.
The Times describes the congregation in which Daughtry was raised - the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., where generations of family members, including her father Herbert Daughtry, have preached for decades: "Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, 'They Owe Us.' Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry's arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology - the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons - and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her."
Judi McLeod, a former Toronto Sun columnist, opined it will be "Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a skirt" as Daughtry leads the Democratic National Convention in Denver. "While the media hounded Wright for his anti-American rants and while presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Hussein Obama divorced him as his personal pastor, Obama's head will be crowned by Leah Daughtry, who ardently believes in the same Marxist 'Black Liberation Theology' preached by Wright," McLeod wrote on Canada Free Press.
When Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced Daughtry's appointment to the post of convention CEO, he cited her "strong guidance, skilled leadership and counsel."
More here
What a lot of bulldust that last bit is. "Leadership"? She leads only 20 people! She is a failure by church standards. It is another example of the Leftist faith in verbal magic. They think that you can alter the reality by fooling around with the words used to describe it. Angry white men have given her good jobs but that says more about the stupidity of anger than it says about her
*************************
ELSEWHERE
Israel: Rise in homosexual tourism stirs unease : "There is something incongruous about the stretch of beach just under the Hilton Hotel's high perch. For there, below the bluff, are two so-called 'specialty beaches.' The Hassidic beach, surrounded by an eight-foot concrete wall, features a polite sign at its entrance: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are women's bathing days, it announces. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays belong to men. It's the municipality's solution to the ultra-orthodox dilemma of how to body surf without breaking the halachic, Jewish law, prohibition on unmarried members of the opposite sex seeing one another in immodest dress. At the beach directly adjacent to the walled compound, every day is men's bathing day. This is the unofficial gay beach."
What is that 'windfall profits' tax? "What is a "windfall" profit anyway? I would define a windfall profit as profit without any meaningful effort. But Liberals/Socialists have a different definition. They seem to believe any profit above some arbitrary amount is fair game for a windfall profit tax. But profits are good. The profits from companies employ thousands of employees, provide needed products, pay billions in taxes and provide a stable income for investors. The Left likes to single out segments of U.S. economy to attack. These attacks include `big drug', `big agricultural', and now `big oil'. By adding the adjective `big' the Left is trying to demonize those sectors of the economy. How come big government is good and big industry is bad? Simple - the Leftwing politicians can control government but until they can totally control these segments of the economy they are bad. So these Leftwing politicians demonize and attempt to penalize these companies for making a profit. In a free market society profits are good, only in Socialist/Communist controlled societies are profits demonized. But as we slid closer to a Socialist state we will continue to hear profits demonized. There is a blind hatred of profits"
Confused Leftists: "When the War on Drugs succeeds and cocaine prices rise, you don't see the Drug Czar proposing government subsidies for addicts. I don't like his mission, but at least he's honest on this point. He's not out there disrupting supplies one day and then helping addicts pay for their fixes the next. The same can't be said, however, of warriors on oil addiction. Consider green businessman Joseph P. Kennedy II. His nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation pushes an environmentalist agenda of reduced energy use, wind power, and carbon offsets. But it also has a campaign of giving discount heating oil to the poor and elderly. You might have seen its ads on TV, such as the one where a poverty-stricken mother and child, freezing in their unheated home, is saved by Joe and his delivery truck, bringing them oil at 40 percent off. But why is Joe bringing them oil at all, let alone cheap oil? Shouldn't he be bringing them solar panels or manuals on energy conservation, or perhaps a gold star for this family's low carbon footprint?"
Canadian knife registry idea isn't too sharp: "Some of our parliamentarians have been getting a bit too much sun during their summer holidays. That's the only explanation for the discussion by some opposition MPs about the possible introduction of a knife registry, following the gruesome, fatal attack on a Greyhound bus passenger late last month. A knife registry? Really? What would I have to declare, paring knives, a bread knife, the plastic knife I used to put tuna on crackers while I was having lunch at work the other day? Most knives are sharp. That helps them serve their purpose, you know, to cut things. There would be no way to single out knives that are used for hunting and ones used to cut chicken for that stir-fry you're making for dinner. Or ones used to, say, kill people. I'm not going to say the gun registry has turned out well, but I think there's a need to register firearms."
Partial backdown under pressure by Pelosi: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House. Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a “hoax.” But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote. “They have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas,” Pelosi said. “We can do that. We can have a vote on that.” She indicated such a vote would have to be part of a larger package that included other policies, like releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which she said could bring down prices in a matter of days.... She even indicated that she might support a package that includes drilling. She said her decision on whether to support such legislation would depend on how the policies are packaged. “It’s not excluded, let’s put it that way,” Pelosi said."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, 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 Paralipomena
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
****************************
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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
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