Monday, March 14, 2005

ELSEWHERE

The Leftist embrace of racism continues: "The proposed legislation would ordain a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity cobbled together by Native Hawaiians meeting a threshold of Native Hawaiian blood. The Entity would negotiate with the United States and the State of Hawaii for lands, natural resources, civil and criminal jurisdiction, and other matters within the customary purview of a sovereign. It would be a race-based state within a state: a government of Native Hawaiians, by Native Hawaiians, for Native Hawaiians"

What a disgrace in Atlanta! Several people had to die because of political correctness. A big black male prisoner is unhandcuffed and escorted by a little old female "guard". Was that asking for trouble or not? Here is what happened: "Brian Nichols, 34, is taken from the Fulton County Jail in northwest Atlanta to Fulton's new Justice Tower downtown. The tower backs up to the old courthouse. In a holding cell, Nichols' handcuffs are removed so he can change from his jail uniform to civilian clothes for his rape trial before Barnes. Sheriff's Deputy Cynthia Hall, 51, of Jonesboro is escorting him..... In or near the holding cell, Nichols attacks Deputy Hall. They struggle for at least three minutes. Nichols slams the deputy into the wall, takes her handgun and shoots her in the head. He flees with her weapon. Nichols crosses the 8th-floor skybridge linking the Justice Tower to the old courthouse. He takes three people hostage and enters the judge's private chambers. He rips out the telephone and searches the three for cell phones. He pops in and out of the office, returning with another deputy at gunpoint. He has taken the deputy's gun. Nichols handcuffs the deputy and pulls him into a closet. He then leaves. Moments later, shots are heard by his three captives. Witnesses say Nichols entered the courtroom from a door behind Judge Barnes' bench and shoots the judge in the back of the head. He then shoots court reporter Julie Ann Brandau of Snellville. Neither survive". [Because of "diversity" some of the guards have to be female of course and age cannot be mentioned. How "correct"! Because of "respect" for criminals, he was not handcuffed when taken into court. How "sensitive"!]

My latest posting on MarxWords shows that Marx thought war was a healthy influence. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at two views of the afterlife.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Sunday, March 13, 2005

CASTRO: NEW BOOK FROM REGNERY

Castro is the "charming and idealist" dictator loved by Hollywood, academia, and the liberal media. However, what The New York Times doesn't tell you is that behind his charisma lies a merciless dictator and mass murderer who outnumbered the Nazi prewar incarceration and murder rate during his first three months in power. In Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, journalist, acclaimed author, and Cuban emigre Humberto Fontova shatters the myths and exposes the truth about the liberal elites' love affair with Castro-revealing the propaganda of media inaccuracies of the past forty-three years.

Fidel is a shocking confirmation of how one dictator has murdered, impoverished, and tyrannized a country that once had the eleventh highest living standard in the world-yet remains American liberals' favorite dictator. In hundreds of interviews with former Castro regime officials, anti-Castro freedom fighters, and Castro's political prisoners, Fontova reveals the truth about "Cuba's President." Fidel discloses horrific tales of the Castro regime, including his failed terrorist plot on New York City, atrocious human rights record, and blood-drenched Cuban Revolution.

More details here

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I am still getting mail about my recent posts pointing out that Hitler was a socialist. Most of it is from Leftists who have obviously not read a single link that I put up in that connection but the following email from a regular correspondent gave me a bit of a laugh: "Your recent post about Leftists not accepting the fact that Hitler was a socialist raises a question that has puzzled me for a long time: just what do socialists think socialism is? In the broadest strokes I think their reasoning is essentially something like this: "socialism is all that is good and lovely. Hitler was not good and lovely. Therefore Hitler cannot be a socialist." Sometimes I think it's no deeper than that, really.... But on a deeper level I think there is something else at work here: the Nazis were too organized and far too snazzy dressers to be contemporary leftists. Contemporary leftists these days seem to have a built-in suspicion of things like cleanliness and order and a weird worship for the criminal, the nutcase, the generally messed-up".

The new bankruptcy bill, which now looks like becoming law, has attracted enemies among both Leftists and Rightists (see e.g. here and here and here and here and here). There seems to be a general view that it is too harsh. I disagree. I think it is not tough enough. I do not see why anybody should EVER be discharged from bankruptcy until they have paid their debts. Why should anybody be legally allowed to thumb their nose at people who have provided them with goods and services in good faith? Debtors should work to repay their debts -- even if it takes years. Though I would exempt debts arising through tort law as such debts are largely random hazards these days and usually arise without any benefit being received by the debtor. One of my readers has written in on this subject too. See here. Bring back personal responsibility!

The usual Leftist substitution of abuse for discussion still seems to be going strong at Columbia University -- where far-Leftists are defending Islamist professors against student attempts to get balance into the classroom.

What a klutz English journalist Simon Jenkins is! He is best known for publishing an article claiming that there was no terrorist threat to Europe just a day or two before the Madrid bombing. Now he has published an article in The Times saying how ignorant and uninformed bloggers are compared to wise print journalists like himself. But he totally undermines his own case by showing his complete ignorance of blogs and blogging. The howlers in his article are innumerable. His article demonstrates exactly the OPPOSITE of what he asserts -- he shows by example that it is the print journalists who are the ignoramuses. Scott Burgess has the sorry details.

Young women yearn for 1950s role as stay-at-home mums: "They are the generation of women who grew up expecting to have it all. No longer forced to choose between children and a career, they were set to embrace superwomanhood by doing both - while holding down a perfect relationship and keeping a spotless home in their spare time. But modern woman has taken a reality check. The average 29-year-old now hankers for a return to the lifestyle of a 1950s housewife. The daughters of the "Cosmo" generation of feminists want nothing more than a happy marriage and domestic bliss in the countryside, according to a survey. Research into the attitudes of 1,500 women with an average age of 29 found that 61 per cent believe "domestic goddess" role models who juggle top jobs with motherhood and jet-set social lives are "unhelpful" and "irritating". More than two-thirds agree that the man should be the main provider in a family, while 70 per cent do not want to work as hard as their mother's generation. On average, the women questioned want to "settle down" with their partner by 30 and have their first child a year later".

Black-white gap in death rate: " Middle-age black men are dying at nearly twice the rate of white men of a similar age, reflecting lower incomes and poorer access to healthcare, a study says. But mortality among black infants is dropping. While overall longevity for both black and whites has improved during the past 40 years, the gap between the races has narrowed little, former Surgeon General David Satcher said in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs ..... One reason for the differences is that gains in healthcare access generally have not included black men unless they were older or disabled, Satcher said. For example, when Medicare became law, the average black man did not live long enough to become eligible, he said. Other factors include the relatively low incomes of black men compared with whites, a rise in gun-related deaths among blacks, their disproportionately high death rate from AIDS, and higher rates of heart disease and diabetes, Satcher said..... ''Strikingly, the homicide rate of black males in the highest education category exceeds that of white males in the lowest education group,'' Jackson and Williams wrote." [Looks like it's not all the fault of whites this time!]

America's Ayatollahs: "It is painfully ironic that we should be promoting the spread of democracy abroad when democracy is shrinking at home. Over the years, the outcomes of our elections have meant less and less, as judges have taken more and more decisions out of the hands of elected officials. Judges have imposed their own notions on everything from school administration to gay marriage, and have ordered both state and federal agencies to spend billions of dollars to carry out policies favored by the judges or have even ordered a state legislature to raise taxes. This naked exercise of judicial power has been covered by the fig leaf of pretense to be "interpreting" laws and the Constitution by stretching and twisting words beyond recognition.... While people in various countries in the Middle East are beginning to stir as they see democracy start to take root in Iraq, our own political system is moving steadily in the opposite direction, toward rule by unelected judicial ayatollahs, acting like the ayatollahs in Iran".

Wayne Lusvardi points out the junk science behind the latest claim that passive smoking causes breast cancer.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Marx ripped off his own father. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" has a bit more on the Anglican churches.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Saturday, March 12, 2005

AN AMUSING "LEFTIST EVANGELICAL"

There is an interview with Jim Wallis the editor of Sojourners in the Leftist Mother Jones magazine in which Wallis tries to explain why Christians should be Leftists. Being a scripture blogger, I would have to write a very long article to point out all the dubious theology in the interview but I thought I might point out a couple of points that amused me. Some excerpts first:

"The Right is comfortable with the language of religion, values, God talk. So much so that they sometimes claim to own that territory. Or own God. But then they narrow everything down to one or two issues: abortion and gay marriage. I am an evangelical Christian, and I can't ignore thousands of verses in the Bible on [another] subject, which is poverty.... Jesus didn't speak at all about homosexuality. There are about 12 verses in the Bible that touch on that question. Most of them are very contextual. There are thousands of verses on poverty. I don't hear a lot of that conversation"


Notice how he just changes the subject on abortion. He says he can't ignore thousands of verses about poverty but he can apparently ignore verses relevant to abortion. And how about this verse? How does this fit in with the Leftist crusade to eliminate poverty? "For ye have the poor always with you" (Matthew 26:11). I guess that one can be ignored too. And how is the context going to change the meaning of Romans 1:26-32 or 1 Corinthians 6:9? Both scriptures make perfectly clear that homosexuality bars one from entering Heaven so it would take a real priest of the Devil to advise people to ignore such scriptures, would it not? If you can only be a Leftist by ignoring half of the Bible I think that speaks for itself. I also have a couple of posts on my scripture blog relevant to the Wallis misrepresentations. See here and here.

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There is an article here, by disgraced Australian Leftist Richard Butler, that is apparently very popular in Leftist circles at the moment. He argues with remarkable logic that America and Israel should "[keep] their side of the bargain" as promised in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Since Israel was never in the treaty, it is a great mystery to figure out what bargain Butler is referring to. The treaty is however a cold war relic so should probably be re-negotiated if time permitted. The Iran problem is an imminent one however. And only someone as strange as Richard Butler (or perhaps Jimmy Carter) would suggest that America could stop Iran from developing nukes by itself demolishing its nukes. America has shown its responsibility and restraint with nukes by not using them for 60 years. Anybody who sees signs of responsibility and restraint in the Islamists is living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Wonders will never cease! The BBC has just broadcast a TV program that tells it like it is about Britain's immigration problems and it looks like the Dutch have gone off the whole EU idea.

Leftist persuasion methods have not changed much since Stalin: "Police say Michelle Fernandez, 35, was chased for miles Tuesday by an irate 31-year-old Tampa man who cursed at her as he held up an anti-Bush sign and tried to run her off the road. His sign, about the size of a business letter, read: Never Forget Bush's Illegal Oil War Murdered Thousands in Iraq. "I guess this was a disgruntled Democrat," Tampa Police spokesman Joe Durkin said. "Maybe he has that sign with him so he's prepared any time he comes up against a Republican." Police arrested Nathan Alan Winkler at his home on N Cleveland Street near Hyde Park within an hour of the incident...."I was just almost run off the road by a man," she told the dispatcher.... "He told our officers that he just got mad at her, so he went after her," Durkin said.... "This could have been tragic, for her and her children and for other people on the road as this was going on," Durkin said. ..... Records show Winkler has been registered as a Democrat since 1996 .... Michelle Fernandez said Wednesday night, her nerves still frayed. "But here he is protesting the war and lost lives, and he is going to put me and my children in danger?"

U.N. still the terrorists' friend: "The United Nations must recognize Hezbollah as a force to be reckoned with in implementing the U.N. resolution calling for the withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of the country's militias, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.... Annan said the world needs to accept that in every society different groups may hold different views.... "But even the Hezbollah - if I read the message on the placards they are using - they are talking about non-interference by outsiders ... which is not entirely at odds with the Security Council resolution, that there should be withdrawal of Syrian troops," Annan told reporters".

Paradox of Illinois Laws: "No kids, stop playing video games!! You should be having sex and getting abortions! Yes, that's right. In Illinois if you are under 18 you can't get your ears pierced, take medicine in school, open a bank account, get a job, or for the most part go to the bathroom without your parents permission. Now you can't buy video games (and this is NOT a defense of those games), but you can get an abortion. You can't be trusted with Grand Theft Auto but you can be trusted to make life or death decisions without a parent. This is the logic of a blue state".

The Alamo: Something Leftists will never understand: "It is that time of year for me to remind my readers about the magnificent stand by the defenders of The Alamo back in 1836. The Alamo fell on March 6 of that year. For more than 13 days, 186 brave and determined patriots withstood Santa Anna's seasoned army of over 5,000 troops. To a man, the defenders of that mission fort knew they would never leave those ramparts alive. They had several opportunities to leave and live, yet they chose to fight and die. How foolish they must look to this generation of spoiled Americans! It is difficult to recall that stouthearted men such as Davy Crockett, Will Travis and Jim Bowie really existed. ... There was something different about them, however. They possessed a commitment to liberty that transcended personal safety and comfort."

Bigoted NAACP: "Doesn't anyone wonder why the NAACP does not have events celebrating the first black woman secretary of state? Why does an organization whose mission is to advance the lot of blacks not celebrate Clarence Thomas, our black Supreme Court justice?"

The poor old Leftists! Still answering arguments with abuse: "a large part of the conservative blogosphere is nothing more than old style slime artists with a shiny new medium to abuse, while another large part either wittingly or unwittingly passes along their swill as a supposed groundswell of grass roots outrage. Peek underneath the rock and it's not a pretty sight".

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Marx lived high on his father's money. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" has some comments and challenges from a Christadelphian.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Friday, March 11, 2005

THOSE NAZI AMERICAN CHRISTIANS AGAIN

My brief derisive comment of a couple of days ago about a post on Daily Kos comparing American Christians to Nazis was taken up by Salon's Daou Report so got a few Leftist readers. It evidently hit a nerve as I got quite a few emails from Leftists about it. So although I would not normally dignify such febrile accusations with a serious attempt at reply, I feel I should mention the points raised in the emails and say why they are wrong.

The most common claim was that just because Hitler called himself a socialist does not mean that he really was one. I have no knowledge of any party calling itself socialist that is/was not in fact socialist but the essential point is that Hitler was a socialist as judged by his deeds too. He put all German industry under tight government and party control. There was a Nazi party commissar in every factory to make sure that the State's will was done. If that is not socialism what would be? For fuller details of just how socialist the Nazis were see here.

The second point raised was that Hitler did in his speeches from time to time claim to be a Christian. So therefore all Christians are Nazis? To say so is of course a gross logical fallacy -- rather like saying that all Chihuahuas are dogs therefore all dogs are Chihuahuas. But again the essential point is that Hitler should be judged by his deeds. He did nothing pro-Christian that I am aware of and sent to the camps heaps of people who WERE faithful Christians. He also promoted Nazism as an alternative to Christianity with ceremonies and beliefs that went back to pre-Christian paganism. He was as much a fake Christian as he was a real socialist. Like Leftists today, he had no time for real Christianity, only Christianity that parroted the Party line.

A third point made by one writer was that the Serbs are 20th century Christians who carried out mass murder. Again we have the Chihuahua fallacy of course but aside from that the point is that the Serbs themselves referred to what they were doing as ETHNIC cleansing. It was an ethnic war, not a religious war. To outsiders all Yugoslavs look much the same but that means nothing. To outsiders Canadians and Americans look and sound the same too but try telling almost any Canadian that he is just the same as an American and see what reply you get! So ethnic or other differences do not have to be great to be deeply felt. And comparing American Christians to the Serb butchers is as inaccurate and as grossly offensive as comparing them to the Nazis of course. What the Serbs WERE is socialists. Their leader, Milosevic, was in fact one of their previous bosses under Communism.

A point I have not mentioned so far is that the Daily Kos post I initially commented on is part of a constant round of claims on Leftist sites about how Fascist America in general has become under Republican rule (e.g. here). The old Laurence Britt 14-point definition of Fascism -- which conspicuously omits Fascism's socialist characteristics -- seems to be enjoying a new round of popularity, and a sermon incorporating it by Davidson Loehr has been reproduced on Leftist blogs ad nauseam. I have had a couple of shots at that sort of nonsense already recently (see here and here) so will not go over old ground again but I do want to draw attention to a pretty good deflation of the idea from a Leftist source: See Frameshop. There is also an impassioned reply to the original Britt article here. And for a comprehensive account of what historical Fascism actually was see here. And for an account of the time when America DID go close to Fascist rule see here.

(An earlier version of this post appeared on Blogger News)

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Ethics: Keith Burgess Jackson has just put up a simplified taxonomy of metaethical positions which divides them into either consequentialist or deontological ones. Since I regard ethical statements as being usually translatable into ordinary empirical statements, I suppose it is no surprise that I do not feel comfortable with that classification. I think that most "is right", "is good" or "ought" statement boil down to "leads to generally desired long-term consequences" statements so, while I am clearly a consequentialist in that regard, I also think such statements have truth value -- they can be tested -- so that makes me a sort of deontologist too, I think. So I utterly reject moral relativism -- because it denies that moral statements can be tested or have truth value. I think, for instance, that "honesty is right" is not only true but testably true (i.e. one can at least in theory test whether or not honesty does usually lead to generally desired long-term consequences) and that anybody who denies that such a statement can be evaluated or compared in any way is not being serious. I am happy to concede however that people can use moral language in ways other than what I have just described and I say more about that here.

China pisses into the wind: "Chinese officials have recently demanded that the Australian government "review" its 50-year-old treaty with the United States. Australia "needs to be careful," Beijing Foreign Ministry official He Yafei reportedly warned, lest it wind up in a confrontation with China as part of its treaty obligations to the United States"

I have just put up here an article by a disillusioned black Democrat who details the very long history of oppression of blacks by Democrats. A very curious thing about this article is that it has been taken down from everywhere where it originally appeared -- perhaps because it uses the "n" word -- as blacks are wont to do. The High Court of Australia has recently ruled that the "n" word is not offensive in Australia so I will re-post the article on an Australian site if need be.

Scott Hogenson has some choice comments about the hypocritical silence from the Left about an inexperinced blogger being given access to White House press briefings -- after they howled blue murder about an inexperienced conservative journalist being given access.

Zacht Ei has the background on the dummo Italian journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq and then came under U.S. fire. She was sure that the Islamists would welcome Communists!

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Marx was hopeless with money. No wonder he was such a naive economist! My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at the Ascension.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Thursday, March 10, 2005

FROM BROOKES NEWS

War, destruction and Keynesian madness Keynesians are making the insane argument that wholesale destruction leads to greater and more advanced investments and thus raises living standards
Syrian Intellectuals call on Syria's President Al-Assad to withdraw from Lebanon Syrian Intellectuals call on Syria's President Al-Assad to withdraw from Lebanon
Bastiat's "Unwanted Goods" Bastiat was a fairly dry-witted writer, but his criticisms of 19th century France's policies are integral to today's world
Do not believe any of the news about Israel that's fit to print Folks, it pains me as a newspaper columnist to say this, but, you really should not believe anything you read in those lying newspapers
Castro proves embargo foes wrong Free-market wizards' theorems and equations don't allow for variables like "Castroism". So they keep plugging in China, Vietnam, Poland, etc

Details here

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Kos is once again trying to tip things on their ear. He seems to agree with GWB over his attempts to cut out government pork for cotton farmers (put in place by Democrats -- including "Great Society" LBJ) but at the same time seems to think the whole thing discredits Republicans! Go figure! I would have thought it shows GWB's political courage and sincerity about cutting out waste.

Poor old Liberal Avenger is still smarting about the time I pointed out his hypocrisy. Though he has nothing other than abuse to offer: No reference to the facts at issue or rational argument of any kind. He has obviously learnt from Engels. And he still can't spell either. Maybe someone should tell him what those wiggly lines in his word processor are for.

Britain's Independent (One of the world's most misnamed papers) has joined the "Was Bush right?" chorus: "But however circumscribed, the first phase of Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon is another sign of change across the Middle East.... It is barely six weeks since the US President delivered his second inaugural address, a paean to liberty and democracy that espoused the goal of "ending tyranny in our world". Reactions around the world ranged from alarm to amused scorn, from fears of a new round of "regime changes" imposed by an all-powerful American military, to suspicions in the salons of Europe that this time Mr Bush, never celebrated for his grasp of world affairs, had finally lost it. No one imagined that events would so soon cause the President's opponents around the world to question whether he had got it right" And Publius Pundit details some pro-democracy demonstrations in Kuwait and other places we don't normally hear much about. There are even signs of hope in Vietnam. Daniel Pipes is right to be cautious about it all but GWB does seem to have made absolute monkeys out of his critics now. Those of us who have supported him throughout are certainly laughing.

Fake rally: "The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria's occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning".

Amusing: The NY Review of Books is making a new attempt to explain last November's Republican victory. All that they have come up with, however, is the old George Lakoff nonsense that Bush portrayed himself as "masculine" and Kerry as "feminine". Since there are more female voters than male ones that should have been a LOSING strategy but our Leftists wiseheads don't seem to have thought of that! Nor do they explain how GWB split the male/female vote roughly 50/50. If his appeal was just masculine, shouldn't a preponderance of men have voted for him? They don't even consider that.

Good news from California: "Three more Newcastle residents have been arrested in connection with the attempted firebombing of a Lincoln residential construction site in a plot the FBI says was hatched at a Christmas Eve party.... The three are accused, along with Ryan Daniel Lewis, 21, of conspiring to plant firebombs at two home construction sites on Flores Court at the Twelve Bridges development, one of a string of incidents the FBI believes is the work of the radical Earth Liberation Front".

Dutch flight: "Some 49,000 people emigrated from the Netherlands last year, the highest figure since 1954, Statistics Netherlands said on Monday..... But besides the sluggish Dutch economy, immigration and integration concerns are reportedly contributing to pessimism about the future of the Netherlands. This is in turn reportedly leading to a white Middle Class flight away from the Lowlands. And despite the fact that, emigrants rarely cited a fear of militant Islam as their main reason for packing their bags, the killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a fierce critic of fundamentalist Islam, last November seems to have been a catalyst, The New York Times reported last month. The number of visitors to the website www.emigratie.nl jumped sharply after the assassination. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand diplomats in the Netherlands told The New York Times that while immigration papers were processed in their home capitals, embassy officials in The Hague had been swamped by inquiries in recent months".

Wow! The times sure are a-changing a lot faster than Bob Dylan ever envisaged: The first blogger has now been admitted to a White House news briefing.

Arnie is doing well at fundraising for his 2006 run to be returned as California Governor. A lot of his contributions are coming from the East Coast even. A very popular man -- surely a shoo-in for 2006.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots to read.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Engels was looking forward to a time of revenge. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at whether Jesus existed or not.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Wednesday, March 09, 2005

SO MUCH FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Another of the Left's routine policy failures

A batch of new studies suggesting that black males in the United States are falling ever further behind other groups in health, education and employment has ignited a debate within the black community about who is to blame and what can be done. "There's a major discussion within the community about what we need to do about black males," said Peter Groff, a Colorado state senator and director of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver.

Traditionally, many black leaders have blamed the legacy of slavery, institutional racism and poverty for the problems faced by blacks in general and men in particular. But comedian Bill Cosby rejected that approach in two provocative speeches last summer, in which he called on fellow blacks to stop blaming society for their troubles and start looking at themselves. Attacking urban "hip hop" culture and the collapse of the two-parent family, Cosby challenged those within the black community who opposed "washing their dirty laundry in public." "Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other nigger as they're walking up and down the street. They think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere," Cosby said.....

Whatever the causes, the latest figures paint a bleak picture. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in December that 51 percent of all HIV diagnoses were among blacks, who make up less than 13 percent of the population..... Black men live an average of 7.1 years less than other racial groups and experience disproportionately higher mortality in every single leading causes of death..... Over the past decade, the high school graduation rate for black men has fallen to 43 percent, while that of black women has risen to 56 percent..... A report in June for the Alternative Schools Network found that in 2002 one in every four black men in the United States was permanently unemployed, a rate double that of white men and 70 percent higher than among Asian and Hispanic men.... In its most recent report on the nation's prison population, the Department of Justice found that at the end of 2003, over 9 percent of all black males aged 26 to 29 were incarcerated, compared to 2.6 percent of Hispanics and 1.1 percent of whites.

And nobody mentions that welfare might be part of the problem. See here

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LEFTIST REALITY DENIAL AGAIN

There is a popular post on Daily Kos at the moment by a descendant of a Jewish survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. His conclusion about what gave rise to those camps?

"Now when I see the hate and bigotry that comes out of those that call them "Christians" or "Moral People", I know that this is how it began seven decades ago in Europe. It was too late, when people finally woke up, millions had been carted away in cattle cars to their deaths. I don't want to see that here or anywhere else. I do not want there to be cattle cars filled with people that these hate mongers scream out against. I do not want to see gays, liberals, Mexicans, hippies, Hollywood Actors or anyone else have to be tattooed with a number".


So the Christians were responsible for Hitler and the current group most similar to the Nazis are Christians. The fact that Hitler was a socialist and that he persecuted Christians is not admitted. The fact that Leftists from Marx & Engels onwards have been filled with hate for vast sections of the human race is not admitted. The fact that Christians had NOTHING to do with any of the vast genocides of the 20th century is not admitted. The fact that no Christian group has sent or tried to send any gays, liberals, Mexicans, hippies or Hollywood actors to concentration camps is not admitted. That's quite a delusional system he's got there but reality is so pesky for Leftists that they need such delusions.

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A great victory for jobs: "The Senate defeated dueling proposals Monday to raise the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage one backed by organized labor, the other salted with pro-business provisions in a day of skirmishing that reflected Republican gains in last fall's elections. Both plans fell well short of the 60 votes needed to advance"

Syria's friend: "Responding to three weeks of anti-Syria demonstrations, a massive, Hezbollah-organized rally filled a central Beirut square Tuesday to show support for Syria and reject a U.N. resolution that calls for complete and immediate withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon".

V.D. Hanson: "The invasion of Iraq was not to loot its oil treasure, but more likely to cease the recycling of its petrodollars that went to terrorists and weapons procurement..... Those who scream ``no blood for oil'' would do better to chant ``no oil money for bloody terrorists and dictators.''

Leftist false prophets: "While liberals clung to the peculiar notion that Arabs don't mind being oppressed, so long as they are being oppressed by dictators who hate the United States, Bush believed Muslims would embrace liberty and democracy if the tyrants' boots were removed from their necks. He then proceeded to remove those boots in Afghanistan and Iraq. And now the "Arab street" has spoken in a manner liberals never expected.... Liberals underestimate what can be accomplished by courage and resolve because these are not qualities they possess."

There is a very touching story here from the son of a survivor of the Armenian genocide who found refuge in America.

The usual Leftist exhibitionists: "Prince Charles rebuffed bare-breasted protesters, ignored abusive anti-monarchists and battled a cold blast on a whirlwind visit to Wellington yesterday. Two women were arrested after a topless display before the prince in Civic Square as they protested against colonisation and for the right to breast cancer screening.... Protesters Hanah Plante, 22, and Holly Emma Goldman were arrested after exposing their breasts. Plante had "Get your colonisation shame off my breasts" written across her chest and later said she was protesting against colonialism, which meant women could no longer go bare-breasted."

There is an interesting email on Gun Watch about the various weapons being used in Iraq.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Engels advocated abuse a method of argument. Leftists have certainly learnt THAT lesson! My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks again at why Jesus was not recognized after his resurrection.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Tuesday, March 08, 2005

TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I pick out what I think are my best posts for the week:

On Dissecting Leftism I have some comments about fake compassion and its motives

On Political Correctness Watch I note an intolerant and uncompassionate peacenik church

On Greenie Watch I note a huge Greenie blunder over depleted uranium munitions

On Education Watch I note the lockstep Leftists at UNC Chapel Hill

On Gun Watch I have the story of a Texas hero

On Socialized Medicine I note evidence that American medicine is better for you than British medicine

On A Scripture blog I ask why Jesus was generally not recognized after his resurrection

On Leftists as Elitists I note how the media elite are hiding good news from Iraq

On MarxWords I note that Marx mocked ideals of freedom, justice and equality

On Majority Rights I note the decay of the British police force.

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ELSEWHERE

It's all coming out now about the Communist Italian journalist who was released by the terrorists and then shot up by U.S. forces. The car WAS speeding and Italy DID pay a huge ransom, thus encouraging more kidnapping.

Australia deports its illegals: "Seventy-four illegal migrant workers have been deported on a charter flight after a series of raids in regional Victoria. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the 57 Malaysians and 17 Thais had been found over the past three weeks, most of them working on farms in the Goulburn Valley. The 48 men and 26 women were flown out on a charter flight to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok yesterday. Senator Vanstone defended the use of a charter flight as the most cost-effective option given the size of the group. "The success of operations such as this, completed yesterday, should send a strong message that the government does not tolerate people living and working illegally in this country," she said."

The usual Leftist attack on jobs: "Asking Democrats if they favor an increase in the minimum wage is like asking Martha Stewart if she'd mind sharing some decorating ideas. There are few things they'd rather do, and Sen. Ted Kennedy thinks it is high time. The Massachusetts Democrat is offering a measure that would boost the wage floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. .... Although you can force employers to pay their workers more, you can't force them to employ people. If you raise the tax on cigarettes by $2.10 a pack, people will smoke fewer cigarettes. The minimum wage functions as a tax on hiring low-wage workers, which means companies will look for ways to do without them. Economists have always taken this effect as an unfortunate reality. But a few years ago, ardent proponents of wishful thinking hailed a study that seemed to confirm their hopes. Princeton economists David Card and Alan Krueger looked at what happened in New Jersey when it raised its minimum wage and neighboring Pennsylvania didn't. Far from losing jobs, they reported, New Jersey enjoyed a boom in hiring compared to its neighbor.... As it happens, the study fared poorly under scrutiny. Economists David Neumark of Michigan State University and William Wascher of the Federal Reserve Board got more comprehensive data and found that actually, New Jersey didn't gain jobs compared to Pennsylvania--it lost them".

Bush gets it right again: "The economy is on a tear. You might not know this from coverage in the mainstream media, which may have a built-in bias against George W. Bush. Sure, some big outlets like the New York Times have come around at least somewhat on the president's freedom-and-democracy revolution in the Middle East. But they're not about to concede on the economic power of lower marginal tax-rate incentives. Too bad, because the evidence is overwhelming that the supply-side tax cuts enacted in the spring of 2003 have triggered an economic boom. Yes, I will call it the Bush boom..... Since May 2003 - which not coincidentally was the debut period for Bush's tax cuts on personal income, dividends, and capital gains - the economy has generated 3 million new jobs. Using the Labor Department's household survey, 2.6 million more people have been employed since the tax cuts. The unemployment rate has dropped to 5.4 percent from 6.3 percent. Weekly unemployment claims have fallen to 300,700 - the lowest since late 2000". See also PoliPundit.

Moscow Moved Weapons to Syria and Lebanon : "According to a former top Bush administration official, Russian special forces teams moved weapons of mass destruction out of Iraq to Syria. "I am absolutely sure that Russian Spetsnatz units moved WMD out of Iraq before the war," stated John Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for international technology security. According to Shaw, Russian units hid Saddam's arsenal inside Syria and in Lebanon's Bekka valley. "While in Iraq I uncovered detailed information that Spetsnatz units shredded records and moved all WMD and specified advanced munitions out of Iraq to Syria and Lebanon," stated Shaw during an exclusive interview. "I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives"."

There is a good debunking here of the many nutty conspiracy theories about 9/11.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Marx saw people as "debris". My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at predestination and the 39 Articles of the Church of England.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Monday, March 07, 2005

DO-GOODER PATERNALISM DISASTROUS FOR AUSTRALIAN BLACKS

The Centre for Independent Studies has just issued a seminal paper. It's called A New Deal for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Remote Communities. It makes out a compelling case that the existing deal is a disaster and that the main beneficiaries of the present arrangements are a parasitic and incompetent class of whites in the so-called caring professions..... In the process, they provide the basis for a long-overdue revaluation of the policies of H.C. (Nugget) Coombs.

Coombs, a former governor of the Reserve Bank, was the principal author of a paper called A Certain Heritage, published in 1983. Hughes and Warin call it "a blueprint" for "a socialist experiment - advocating communal land ownership, supported by substantial welfare transfers". Its aim was "to create an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hunter-gatherer utopia that would culminate in a nation independent from the rest of Australia". Put as baldly as that, the whole notion sounds ridiculous. Part of the authors' point is that it always was ridiculous. The tragedy, as they see it, is that too few of the sensible people on the Left or the sceptics on the Right have had the courage to speak freely about dreadful social policy that has had such dire consequences for an already vulnerable underclass.....

As Hughes and Warin put it: "Nowhere in the world has communal land ownership ever led to economic development. Attempting to replicate hunter-gatherer groups in fixed locations created remote, fragmented communities that cannot support jobs and incomes." As a result, education, health, life expectancy, housing and related gaps between remote community dwellers and other Australians have widened. Alcoholism, substance abuse and crime have escalated. They conclude that "any group, regardless of ethnic origin, subjected to this experiment, with all energies deflected from economic to cultural activities, would have been condemned to the same fate". .....

I asked Hughes to expand on the paradox of a man of palpably good intentions being the source of so much misery. She explains it largely in terms of the millennial fantasies about noble savages that were such a pronounced feature of the times. "Coombs's compassion is very understandable," Hughes says. "It is not, however, understandable how a professional economist could formulate a utopian dream of hunter-gatherers living in remote communities, far away from the centres to which Aboriginal people were being attracted by access to education, health and improved housing.....

More here

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"Liberals" still love Commos: "Why has John Kerry sponsored a Senate resolution honoring a Stalinist who championed racial separatism? The Soviet Union awarded W.E.B. Du Bois the Lenin Peace Prize. Maoist China staged a national holiday in his honor in 1959. Now, for reasons unexplained, the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nominee seeks to honor Du Bois too. Kerry's efforts to honor Du Bois have been joined by fellow Bay State Democrat Ed Markey, who, along with more than three-dozen colleagues, has advanced a similar resolution in the House of Representatives."

Childish Europeans: "One reason that Europe understands so well the braggadocio and sense of inferiority of the impotent Muslim world is that it suffers precisely from some of these same maladies in its own problematic relationship with the United States. A Muslim in Europe who puts a picture of bin Laden on his wall is the equivalent of a European chanting that Bush is Hitler"

Theodore Dalrymple on bureaucratic Britain: "I think we are less free than we used to be. The weight of the state is making itself everywhere felt. In my former professional life as a doctor, for example, I was obliged more and more to obey the dictates of ministers, rather than those of my medical beliefs. Whereas when I started out on my career all that was necessary to continue in practice was that I should be qualified and that I should refrain from behaving in an egregious or outrageous manner, by the time I retired this year I had to fulfil all sorts of requirements, all of which (in this age of evidence-based medicine) were quite without evidence of use or efficacy. But that is not the real point of such requirements: they are not there to improve the quality of medical practice; they are there to let us all know who is boss. And even if they were effective, which is intrinsically very difficult to prove, they would still represent a loss of liberty. The fact is that the requirements laid down by ministers and their bureaucrats now take up fully half the time of senior doctors, when they could be doing clinical work, and this at a time of shortage of medical manpower."

The Leftist aim is destruction: "The atheistic socialist intellectual elites have been trying to destroy Western Civilization since they fomented the Counter-Culture Revolution in the 1960's; (I know: I was part of it!). They have the same aim now, only now they're trying to use the courts to accomplish what they could not by popular revolution. The Left's basic anti-Western attitude is why they've had such a hard time joining in with Bush and attacking the neojihadists; in the neojihadists the Left saw a powerful ally in their long-standing effort to destroy America, and with America the West and Western traditions. It's also why they would rather align themselves with Third World dictators like Fidel and Chavez and Mugabe.... The Left knows that they could never get any Amercian legislature to ban religious symbols and references to the Creator from all government auspices, events, objects, etc. That's why they've taken the issue to the courts: this is the Left's last chance at inflicting their atheistic anti-traditional program on to all Americans"

More evidence that the "Hobbits" were just pygmies: "The 18,000 year old human skeleton unearthed in Indonesia last year is in the spotlight once again. In the latest report published in the online edition of Science, researcher paleoneurologist Dean Falk said the skull has advanced features more like those of modern humans. Earlier he had expected to see a chimpanzee skull".

Wal-Mart: A big business with a backbone: "Hi, my name is Andrew and I'm a Wal-Martaholic. That may sound silly, but to many of my friends, shopping at Wal-Mart is something to be ashamed of, a personal weakness like alcoholism or lecherousness. It needn't be so. Wal-Mart's only 'crime' is doing its job -- selling goods to consumers -- so well that it has come to dominate the retail market. It did that by outmaneuvering and underselling its competitors for decades, thereby earning its station as the top global retailer."

I have just put online a set of notes I prepared whilst I was teaching survey research methods at the University of New South Wales many moons ago. They form an introductory course in how to use surveys to assess people's attitudes. See here. They do form the core of a university course, however, so are not for the everyday reader. Some of the matters I cover even seem to be beyond the grasp of a lot of my academic colleagues.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes how Marx advocated bloodshed. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at the post-resurrection Jesus.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Sunday, March 06, 2005

FROM BROOKES NEWS

What is causing the falling dollar? Once the gold standard was abandoned and Keynesianism took hold it was guaranteed that the world would be subjected to volatile exchange rates, depreciating currencies and recurring international financial crises
Social security: why private accounts will work Why private accounts are superior to the present social security system
Social security: what the Democrats won't tell you If the Democrats win on social security Americans can kiss their `assets and incomes' goodbye
Edward D. Wood Jr, the threat of climate change, and left-wing credulity The greens' climate change arguments have more in common with the films of Edward D. Wood Jr than anything to do with science
No such thing as a no-strings-attached welfare state The Irish State has been taking pensions off old folk who were in public nursing homes, since 1970.
Green economic illiteracy, money-grubbing CEOs and windmills Victoria's Labor Government is wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on windmill farms. These economic and scientific illiterates have been conned into this insanity by a bunch of fanatical greens and money-grubbing CEOs
US economy, free trade and jobs Some commentators are still echoing Paul Craig Roberts' concerns about the effects of free trade policies on the US economy

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Hooray! The taxpayer wins for a change: "A World Trade Organization decision yesterday saying the U.S. illegally subsidizes its cotton farmers could threaten millions of dollars paid to wheat growers in Washington, and possibly affect other farm subsidies here as well. The case, brought by Brazil, is the first successful challenge to U.S. domestic farm aid under WTO and is likely to spur challenges to support for other crops, analysts said."

LOL: "Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in an interview. His Oxford colleague Alister McGrath agrees. Atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great public domain it once regarded as its habitat," Mr. McGrath wrote in the U.S. magazine, Christianity Today."

There is a good account here of the massive and useless bureaucratic mess that is the CIA. Largely because of Clinton, its only achievement is in being "diverse".

A place for race in medicine? "Ever since the fall of the Nazis, the world has tried to keep the biology of racial disparity under wraps. It has been acceptable to link racial differences to social and cultural factors. One race might underperform another because of upbringing or poverty. But suggesting biology as the cause for those differences -- like 'The Bell Curve' did a decade ago when it looked at academic achievement -- was strictly taboo. Now, a new and unexpected force -- medicine -- is pulling back the covers. By taking a close look at minute differences in people's genetic codes, researchers and drug companies are beginning to create racially based drugs and treatments. Given the prospect of targeting treatment, some scientists argue that the subject at least ought not to be taboo."

Another attack on the military: "A group of more than 50 House members filed a bill yesterday that would reverse the 12-year-old 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy and allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in uniform, arguing that the ban against them undermines national security at a time when the military is struggling to recruit soldiers. The bill represents the first major congressional effort to repeal the policy since it went into effect in 1993, under a compromise brokered by President Clinton. It also reflects an attempt by Democrats and gay-rights advocates to reframe the debate over the rights of gays and lesbians, in an era when Republicans have used the controversial same-sex marriage issue as a political club against Democrats. The measure's sponsors argue that national security demands that gay and lesbian soldiers be allowed to serve."

Further paradoxes of full equality: "What would be needed to make everyone equally well/badly off? A police state, that's what. The late Harvard political philosopher Robert Nozick made this point a crucial element of his classic Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Basic Books, 1974). He postulated the aggressive public policy of equalization, combined with the measure of liberty no one can reasonably consider giving up, namely, people spending their left over income -- after the Draconian taxation such equalization would require -- as they choose. So, millions of them would spend a bit on seeing Kobe Bryan play basketball -- or Clint Eastwood direct a movie or Britney Spears perform on stage -- which would immediately create enormous inequalities. To remedy this, what is needed? Nothing less than a massive police operation that removes the unequal wealth from these favorites and redistributes it all on a daily basis."

Saudi terrorism: "The predominance of Saudis in Iraqi terrorism also goes a long way toward explaining the other fact that Western media and government have been reluctant to admit: the role of Wahhabism as an inciter of violence against Shias. Wahhabis hate Shias even more than Christians and Jews, because, as Saudi schools (including those like the Islamic Saudi Academy in the United States) teach, Christians and Jews have their own religions that are openly opposed to Islam, but Shias want to "change Islam," which the Wahhabis consider the personal property of the Saudi rulers. Few in the West seemed to notice earlier this week when 2,000 people assembled in Hilla, near Baghdad, to protest a car bombing that killed at least 125. The demonstrators chanted "No to terrorism! No to Baathism and Wahhabism!"

Leftist lamebrain. Has he noted that Osama is a billionaire? "In the opening address of a University conference on world hunger, former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern urged U.S. officials on Thursday to fight the war on terrorism by feeding the starving people of the world. Speaking to an audience of scholars and students in Dodds Auditorium, McGovern said humanitarianism constitutes a counterterrorism strategy because it eases discontent in developing nations. "Instead of going to war in Iraq and smashing that country," McGovern asked, "would we have done better . . . if we had spent that money on reducing hunger?""

My latest posting on MarxWords notes again what an idealist Marx wasn't. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks again at whether Christ died on a cross.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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"


Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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Saturday, March 05, 2005

SOME ECONOMICS

Kudlow on the booming U.S. economy: "Private-sector domestic output -- what Economics 101 students might remember as consumption plus investment (or C+I) -- came in at an outsized 5.5 percent growth. So what did the New York Times do with this upbeat economic story? It buried it. Rather than place the news on the front page of the business section, the Times editors shoved it on page B4. Instead of carrying a senior reporter's byline, the copy came from Reuters News Service.... The Bush-bashing New York Times just won't get honest about America's economic health and the merits of the Bush policies that have led to such strong economic performance. Even more, the Paul Krugman-influenced Times refuses to concede the economic growth power of lower marginal tax-rate incentives. These have got to be angst-filled days over at the Times. It's turning out that Bush has been just as right on the economy as he has been on the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East."

Truth trumps outsourcing hysteria: "'Show us the jobs!' chanted union workers at an AFL-CIO rally protesting outsourcing. They were angry that 'their' jobs were going overseas. So let's go look for the jobs that have disappeared. My colleagues at ABC News asked the AFL-CIO for its best examples of workers who lost jobs because of outsourcing. The first people they told us to talk to were Shirley and Ronnie Bernard. The Bernards used to work at a Levi's factory in Knoxville, TN. But then, Levi's sent jobs to Mexico and closed that plant. It 'tore a lot of people up because some people have been here since they were 16 years of age, and they've been here like 20-something-odd years,' one woman told the local ABC affiliate. People 'were in tears,' said a man. ... But it's restricting outsourcing that would be un-American and stupid. Outsourcing benefitsthe middle class by bringing lower prices."

A British outsourcing success: "Mr Dyson ... caused something of a stink a couple of years ago when he announced that he was moving production of his cleaners from Wiltshire, not to euroland but to Malaysia. The move cost 865 jobs, and was seen (by the union officials in particular) as another nail in the coffin of British manufacturing. Well, better that than the business failing altogether, is the obvious riposte. But look what's happened since. Manufacturing costs have come rattling down, with the concomitant impact on profits. Those profits have allowed Dyson to employ 100 extra people in Britain, not simply screwing his machines together, but doing the altogether more rewarding and valuable work of developing new products. In addition to employing 1,200 people in Malmesbury, the lower production costs mean the company pays more corporation tax for our dear Chancellor to squander on more hospital administrators (or whatever)".

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Keith Burgess Jackson is still pretty steamed about anonymous bloggers and commenters. I myself am not bothered by that at all and I cannot really see why he is, even after reading his comments and links on the matter. As a conservative I expect human nature to be "fallen" and I go along with the Christian view that faults such as cowardice are more to be forgiven than excoriated. And I think that needing to know the author of an argument is only a whisker away from the ad hominem fallacy, in fact. And if anonymity enables someone to blog who might otherwise (say) lose his job by expressing his views publicly, is that not a plus? Jobs are not easy to come by and if you have a mortgage and a family to support, you cannot afford to take many risks. Iain Murray lost his job because of his blogging so it does happen. Good to see that Iain is blogging again too. He describes himself as a combination of a classical liberal with a Burkean conservative -- which is pretty close to what I am.

A good comment: "The real disgrace in the Lawrence Summers affair is that few biologists or biologically trained social scientists have come to his defense. There is ample evidence that male and female brains differ and that these differences manifest themselves in various ways, including choice of occupation. See here. (If you get a blue screen, click "Refresh.") Also, see here and here. Leftists love to criticize the scientific illiteracy of religious people. When can we expect to hear them criticize the scientific illiteracy of feminists? It's a disgraceful double standard: criticize those you dislike; remain silent about those you like."

Hugh Hewitt notes the almost incredible fact that the L.A. Times is trying to whitewash North Korea: "Have the editors no conscience and no shame? Promoting the left at home is one thing, and an aggravating thing at that, but pimping for a ruthless killer regime that exports nuclear technology and murders hundreds of thousands?" The article that Hugh is commenting on is here. And Powerline has an update.

Value for money: "Britain has paid 100 BILLION pounds to Brussels over 18 years, MPs revealed last night. A staggering 37 billion pounds of that was paid to other EU states or swallowed up by European Commission bureaucracy or projects. Eurocrats returned 63 billion pounds to the UK between 1986 and 2003 through costly schemes - many of them "corrupt, flawed or wasteful". Billions were given to UK farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy. Shadow Europe Minister Graham Brady said: "A great deal of this money could have been spent better by Britain. We want to see powers brought back from Brussels and the EU's bureaucracy slimmed down. British taxpayers have been subsidising Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium - which all receive more from Brussels coffers than they pay in. Meanwhile, the National Audit Office has rapped Brussels after the European Court of Auditors failed to give EU accounts a clean bill of health for the tenth year running.""

Biased BBC: "The BBC's reputation for fair and balanced reporting was at risk last night after top broadcaster James Naughtie blurted out his pro-Labour sympathies. In a live chat with ex-Treasury chief Ed Balls - weeks before the May 5 election - he asked: "If WE win the election, does Gordon Brown remain Chancellor. He struggled to recover, saying: "If YOU win the election." The blunder came on Radio 4's flagship Today programme. Mr Naughtie has frequently given Conservatives a rough ride in interviews while apparently giving Labour frontmen an easy time.... The slip-up is particularly embarrassing after the Beeb found its newsmen had swallowed pro-EU propaganda without finding out the facts about Europe. The Tories are already at war with the Beeb over its allegedly one-sided coverage of the 1980s miners' strike in last week's BBC1 film Faith. And it follows Lord Hutton's bombshell report last year criticising the BBC's Iraq war coverage."

My latest posting on MarxWords notes what an idealist Marx wasn't. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" discusses whether or not there are bodies in Heaven.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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"


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Friday, March 04, 2005

WE ARE LIVING IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE

But the revolutions are not the Leftist type, fortunately

"We are living in a revolutionary age, that started more than a quarter century ago in Spain after the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. At that time, hardly anyone believed it possible to go from dictatorship to democracy without great violence, and most Spaniards feared that the terrible civil war of the 1930s - which ended when Franco seized power and installed a military dictatorship - would begin anew. Instead, thanks to a remarkable generation of political leaders, some savvy priests, and the grossly underrated King Juan Carlos, Spain passed smoothly and gracefully into democracy.

It was the beginning of the Age of the Second Democratic Revolution. Spain inspired Portugal, and the second Iberian dictatorship gave way to democracy. Spain and Portugal inspired all of Latin America, and by the time Ronald Reagan left office there were only two unelected governments south of the Rio Grande: Cuba and Surinam. These successful revolutions inspired the Soviet satellites, and then the Soviet Union itself, and the global democratic revolution reached into Africa and Asia, even threatening the tyrants in Beijing.

The United States played a largely positive role in almost all these revolutions, thanks to a visionary president - Ronald Reagan - and a generation of other revolutionary leaders in the West: Walesa, Havel, Thatcher, John Paul II, Bukovsky, Sharansky, among others.

During the Reagan years, the revolution began on the periphery of the major conflict, in Iberia. Following 9/11, the revolution was brought violently to the periphery of the Middle East, in Afghanistan. It swept through Iraq, taking time to liberate Ukraine (against whose independence Bush the Elder spoke so shamefully), and now threatens Syrian hegemony over Lebanon, if not the Syrian regime itself, and has forced the Egyptian and Saudi regimes to at least a pretense of democratic change....

Our most lethal weapon against the tyrants is freedom, and it is now spreading on the wings of democratic revolution. It would be tragic if we backed off now, when revolution is gathering momentum for a glorious victory. We must be unyielding in our demand that the peoples of the Middle East design their own polities, and elect their own leaders. The first step, as it has been in both Afghanistan and Iraq, is a national referendum to choose the form of government. In Iran, the people should be asked if they want an Islamic republic. In Syria, if they want a Baathist state. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Libya, if they want more of the same. We should not be deterred by the cynics who warn that freedom will make things worse, because the ignorant masses will opt for the fantasmagorical caliphate of the increasingly irrelevant Osama bin Laden. Mubarak and Qadaffi and Assad and Khamenei are arresting democrats, not Islamists, and the women of Saudi Arabia are not likely to demand to remain shrouded for the rest of their lives.

Faster, please. The self-proclaimed experts have been wrong for generations. This is a revolutionary moment. Go for it".

More here

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