ELSEWHERE

Most amusing report today: The crazy Leftist Australian journalist John Pilger was on Tuesday awarded the 2003 Sophie Prize, a Norwegian award honouring “environmental or development efforts”, for his work which “helped the public examine the real causes of the war in Iraq”. They obviously do not want their prize to be taken seriously.

Estonia is a great example of how rapidly a country can forge ahead once it is liberated from socialism.

City Journal reports that 70 percent of NY convicts are re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years of their release -- but that there are ways of cutting that right down if all the deliberately blind do-gooders can be bypassed.

A good story from "The Atlantic" about the great glut of Soviet tractors in Cuba and why Cuban farmers prefer Oxen

After twice being successfully sued for defamation, the editor of Crikey.com.au has “implemented a new early apology strategy“. Should be more of that in the media generally. They get pretty arrogant at times.

A recent book review by Freeman Dyson really puts a spoke in the wheel of the "Greenhouse" scare-mongers. He points out that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is rapidly grabbed by plants who use it for growth and simply convert it into more topsoil in the end. So rather than doing any harm it simply becomes plant food. And Greenhouse theory seems to totally overlook the possibility that plants will gobble up any extra carbon dioxide.

Chris Brand has some skeptical thoughts about psycho-social engineering.

Michael Darby thinks there are Islamic terrorists in West New Guinea -- immediately to Australia's North.

The Wicked one thinks we need MORE global warming, not less.

In my academic posting of May 6th here, I look at a claim that people with old-fashioned views are "hostile" and show that it is not so.

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AN INDIAN VIEW OF INDIANS IN BRITAIN

I have received the following email from an Indian now living abroad but originally from Hyderabad in Southern India:

Though I am not exactly an Anglophile, I definitely do not want Britain to drown in the sea. There is much in British culture and people that is worthy of admiration and preservation -- yes worth fighting and killing for (in the past I used to think that the only worthy contribution of Britain was their TV comedies like Monty Python, Blackadder, Yes Minister etc. but you get older and wiser..). I would advise Britain to restrict Indian immigration as the Indians who move to Britain are mostly Punjabis and Gujaratis. Both communities have notorious reputations for fraudulent behavior in India and in other countries like Kenya, Hong Kong, U.S etc.

Here is an interesting piece of information for you: The Indian state of Gujarat is named after the invading tribe of Khazars (Indians to Gujjar, plural being Gujjarat). The Khazars also gave their name to the Caucasian country of Georgia. My Russian friend informs me that most "Russian gangsters" are actually Georgian and he abuses Georgians in the vilest terms as being "crooks, frauds" etc!

Punjabis are a hodgepodge of every invader that passed through their state as if it were a lily field! Sikh militarism is a very recent phenomenon.....

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AFFIRMATIVE NONSENSE

Some further comments from a reader about "affirmative action":

There was a college prof from Delaware that wrote a gut-splitting funny column on affirmative action. He announced to his class that, for future exams, he would average the points for the white males, then subtract 5 points from their scores. These same 5 points would then be redistributed to enhance the scores of minorities and women. It was the best comment yet on the nonsensical nature of this policy. Yet the "smartest legal minds in the land" (Alias - liberal Supreme Court justices) have spouted absolute nonsense about this.

I have been very skeptical about "diversity". So I contacted Peter Wood (an anthropologist from Boston U, who has studied "diversity" as much as anybody) and I asked the obvious question: Is there ANY scientific evidence that "diversity" improves any measurable index of education - and he gave me the obvious answer - to his knowledge (and he knows as much as anyone about this issue) NO.

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ELSEWHERE

Well how about that! It has taken the European Central Bank to spell out to the Brits that their creaking National Health Service is doomed as the British population ages. The bank points out that "free" (in reality "rationed") health care will at some stage have to be replaced by a system where patients pay some of the costs.

Great news! India and Pakistan are at least talking about scrapping their nuclear arsenals.

There have been a lot of sensational accusations from Australia's Left-leaning media about Dr. Peter Hollingworth, Governor General of Australia and former Archbishop of Brisbane. I know him personally to a small degree and am pleased that he is one of the few Anglican prelates who actually seems to be a believing Christian. The full story that most of the media forget to mention is available here

It looks like Canada's CBC is trying to beat Britain's BBC when it comes to political bias. The blatant dishonesty of their recent broadcast about "Greenhouse" makes a mockery of any idea that they are a "public service" broadcaster. They are a "Left-loving" broadcaster.

Great! South Africa has resumed using DDT to control mosquitoes (scroll down). And guess what? They have virtually eliminated malaria -- thus saving thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost if they had listened to the Greenies. There has of course never been any good evidence that DDT is harmful.

There is a list here of the major myths about “Greenhouse” and climate change -- plus a scientific demolition of each.

The Australian PM has rightly just rejected any FORMAL “Anglosphere” grouping of Australia, Britain and the USA. When you have the underlying reality already there, there is no need for treaties and the like.

I mentioned the methodologically ludicrous work of Marxist anti-economist Michael Pusey yesterday. A more detailed demolition of his work can be found here (PDF file).

China hand once again tells us of the massive real estate developments -- both residential and commercial -- going on in his part of China. No more village life there! Modern high-rise apartment buildings are common.

On his other site China Hand makes the point that libertarians such as myself should embrace freedom of immigration -- though he acknowledges that the Australian government’s very successful control policy has almost universal support in Australia. He does make a good case, however, for Asian maids being allowed to work in Western countries.

Michael Darby (post of 4th) pays tribute to the remarkable work being done among impoverished Ugandan children by an Australian woman teacher.

The Wicked one has accounts of blockheaded official behaviour from both Taxachusetts and Canada.

Chris Brand has posts on British nationalism and British antisemitism.

In my academic posting of May 5th here, I offer my fellow psychologists a better way of measuring materialistic ambition.

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HAVE THE BRITISH MISSED THE POINT ON IMMIGRATION CONTROL?

The flood of 100,000 "asylum-seekers" arriving in Britain every year is immensely unpopular with British voters for very good reasons and the British government is of course keen to do something about it. But wringing their hands seems to be the main thing that they have done about it so far for fear of the Leftists in their midst who frown on anything that might be considered "inhumane". That the Leftists are just hypocrites who did not at all mind the infinitely more inhumane Saddam Hussein regime seems not to be noticed. The latest British proposal is to try and make the problem go away by sending all "refugee" arrivals to processing centres in Russia. That is of course a copy of the Australian policy of sending such arrivals off to remote Pacific Islands for processing.

What they overlook, however, is that it is not the "Pacific" policy that has worked for Australia at all but rather the fact that Australia sends all such arrivals straight to gaol -- whether in the Pacific or in Australia itself. The gaols concerned are very modern and humane but illegal immigrants are often held there in limbo for long periods before having any prospect of release and this regularly causes dramatic protest riots among the inmates. These riots are of course great fodder for the media and receive worldwide TV coverage. And after a few of these riots were publicized, guess what happened? The refugees just stopperd coming! Australia now has essentially no illegal immgrant problem to deal with! Would-be illegals did not like what they saw of Australia on TV and so have gone elsewhere to impose themselves on more weak-willed governments.

So the British proposal MIGHT work -- as long as there are plenty of riots among the illegals sent for "processing" to Russia.

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THE “PAIN” OF MIDDLE-AUSTRALIA

Craig McGregor has written a rather sycophantic review of Michael Pusey’s latest book The experience of middle Australia. The book’s basic thesis is that economic reform has caused great anguish to middle-class Australians. Both the book and the review have such a strong and evident Leftist bias that I was going to leave it to other conservative bloggers to “fisk” both as I like to put my efforts into making my own points rather than demolishing somebody else’s obvious nonsense. Since I know the author of the book quite well, however, China hand has persuaded me that I should put up a few notes.

The first laugh I had when I read the review was: It's a bold and formidable achievement (with endorsements from Noam Chomsky and others on the cover). That should be enough for most people who are wary of bias.

But anyway: Up to 1983 I had an office next to Michael Pusey at the University of N.S.W. and found him to be a most pleasant, bright and friendly fellow. He was however a keen Marxist at that time so his claim now that he is a "middle-of-the-road social democrat" is at least not the whole truth.

I have not read the book nor do I intend to as I gather that it is based on face-to-face interviews and anybody who knows anything about social research knows how much room for observer bias that data gathering of that sort enables. And that the researcher was biased McGregor clearly tells us. He says that Pusey is “an absolutely committed critic of economic and structural reform and globalisation, using his research results to mount a passionate condemnation of the social impact of these reforms.” Pusey gets a bit much even for for McGregor in the end -- he says that the epilogue to the book “descends into an anti-American rant. "The United States has gone mad," he writes”.

That researchers find what they expect to find is known among psychologists (Pusey is a sociologist) as The Rosenthal effect. It is an amazingly powerful effect and not easily avoided. One reason why psychometricians such as myself rely heavily on multiple choice questionnaires is that it enables the researcher to have NO contact with the people being studied -- thus precluding a major source of bias. In most of my research career, until the numbers came out of the computer I had no idea what I was going to find. Questionnaires have their limitations, too, of course, but that is another story.

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ELSEWHERE

It seems that Iraq's former information minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf was actually quite brave to do what he did.

Fascinating: “THE director of a Paris theatre that staged a play critical of US President George W. Bush, has been beaten and slashed across the face with a box cutter.” Apparently, the assailants associated anti-Bush sentiments with pro-Arab sentiments and LOTS of Frenchmen do not like the large Arab minority foisted on them by their governments.

Good if it happens: “AN effusive and appreciative US President George W.Bush has set a personal deadline for a historic free trade agreement by Christmas, after thanking Australia for its courage and sacrifice in the war in Iraq.”

“With 900,000 citizens living in foreign countries Australia has one of the largest diasporas relative to population of any nation in the world”. That’s nearly 5% of the population. We do get around.

Chris Brand notes that eugenics has worked well in Cyprus.

China hand says that a restaurant offering Western food is being set up near him. I guess even the Chinese can have enough of Chinese food -- good though it is.

The Wicked one is rather pleased that “natural” medicines are often poisonous.

Michael Darby points out that under the Australian constitution, the Governor General is our “Head of State”.

In my academic posting of May 3rd here, I look at the popular claim that racists are maladjusted and point to evidence contradicting that claim.

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BLACK REALITIES

In response to the story of the “whites only” prom that I mentioned yesterday, one of my readers in Texas (a professional man who deals with blacks regularly) writes:

How can anyone ask White students to treat Blacks as equals when everyone knows that Blacks are not held to the same standards for either academics or behavior?

In a related story, in Austin TX (as elsewhere) the behavior of Blacks in high school is noticeably worse - this is just a fact. So, there are more Black students disciplined - along comes the NAACP complaining that there is just too much disciplining of Black students. Solution? Essentially, eliminate all discipline [This was the worst system I have seen - my wife quit after two months when students threatened her, called her names out loud, were physically violent in the classroom, etc.- and the principal simply didn't want to hear complaints].

Predictably, some Black thug with a long history of behavior problems killed a girl with a knife on school property. In rides the NAACP on its white horse to investigate an "unsafe environment" in the schools.

These "paleo-activists" just think they are still in the 1960's. They just can't call a spade a spade - and they just can't figure out why Blacks are still not treated as first class citizens

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IMMIGRATION CAN AND SHOULD BE CONTROLLED

A good article by Anthony Browne arguing that Britain has to call a halt to accepting “Asylum-seekers”. Excerpts:

A hundred years ago, most people in the west rarely moved even to the next village; now whole villages from Bangladesh are relocating to northern England. People once, at most, moved to their neighbouring country, one often culturally and ethnically similar, whereas now they move around the world to radically different cultures whose populations have a completely separate history and character. Immigration is historically rare. The fact that there were virtually no border controls until the 20th century illustrates this: there was no need to control borders because so few people ever wanted to cross them

Pro-immigration campaigners who tell the people of Europe that “mass immigration cannot be stopped, so it must be welcomed” are adopting the policies of despots through history of quelling opposition by telling opponents that resistance is futile. The evidence is otherwise. All that is needed is political will.

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ELSEWHERE

Cheeesh!! Why is Colin Powell being so soft on the Syrians -- asking them nicely if they will please some day get around to closing down the offices of undisputed terrorist organizations that operate in Damascus?

Hooray! Libertarian though I am, I cannot help hoping that this bit of government activity works: “WEEKS after the Australian government flagged new anti-spam laws, US regulators have vowed to take swift action against bulk unsolicited email.”

Good to hear that the visit to the GWB ranch by Australia’s John Howard went unusually well

Good! The US plans to deploy an international “stabilization force” in postwar Iraq -- excluding France and Germany

Hmmm... I always thought that the Village Voice was a Leftist rag but I cannot find much to disagree with in Nat Hentoff's columns there. Jolly good stuff in fact.

One of the greatest obsessions of both Leftists and Greens these days is the "precautionary principle" -- the idea that scientists and society in general should do nothing new or different if there is any chance that some bad effects could come out of it. Fortunately, the world has not always been so lily-livered. "Spiked" lists some of the things we would not have today had the precautionary principle prevailed in the past: vaccines, penicillin, antibiotics, aspirin, X-rays, heart surgery, the contraceptive pill, aeroplanes, railways, cars, bicycles, electricity, pesticides etc.

Peter Hitchens writes: "In the the end, the Communists won the Cold War, not with tanks but with ideas. People who hate Britain and love socialism now run the Government, the schools, the Civil Service and most of our broadcasting.”

Michael Darby has a rather hilarious blurb about 9/11 from the LaRouche outfit.

Chris Brand notes some signs of sanity emerging from the People’s Republic of Scotland.

The Wicked one has some amusing stories about kids.

China hand says there is still no sign of SARS in his part of China.

In my academic posting of May 3rd here I note that, despite their Leftist inclinations, psychologists have in fact found some good evidence in favour of capitalist thinking.

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HOW TO HAVE ALLIES

The refusal of GWB to declare victory in Iraq may seem puzzling to many but it is an example of considering other people's feelings. If it is going to upset a lot of Iraqis and other Arabs to declare victory, why not be content with the reality without rubbing it in? A great charge that has been always levelled at the British is "hypocrisy" but again that usually meant simply that the British took care not to upset people's feelings insofar as as they could. In many parts of the world even people's lives are not spared. The Anglo-Saxons, by contrast, even spare people's feelings. It is one secret of their success. You usually need allies in a war and because of their civilized behaviour the Anglo-Saxons usually have allies. They had dozens of allies in the Iraq war -- even Arab ones. And how would they have fought the war without Arab bases? Only with much greater difficulty.

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THE NAVY RULES

Bearing in mind that Clinton slashed the size of the U.S. Navy, this is an interesting email from a reader:

Bush's publicity stunt on the USS Abe Lincoln yeaterday was unequaled in my lifetime. Watching him get out of the jet was just like watching John Wayne capture a town or win a battle. It was priceless. The Democrats just don't have a chance in hell to equal this. A friend with militery connections said the last time a US President visited the same ship, the Admiral had to force sailors to greet President Clinton; without a direct order, few or none would have showed up.

Hats off to the US administration by sending a strong message to everyone by pulling our military out of Saudi Arabia and Turkey - that irrelevance is not just an option - it is reality.

The New York Times, of course, did its best to pour cold water on the occasion.

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SCIENCE RACES AHEAD

"The production of eggs in the laboratory for the first time has raised the possibility that two men could become the parents of their own genetic child. Scientists said yesterday that they had grown an unlimited supply of eggs from embryonic stem cells taken from both male and female embryos. The feat was achieved with mice, but most experts believe it is likely to work with humans. If it does, and the mass-produced eggs can be fertilised, it would also mean that infertile women might not have to rely on donor eggs." What an astounding story!

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ELSEWHERE

What fun! Garlic seems to ward off prostate cancer! But what if your breath puts the lady off?

Great! Australian “Anti-Discrimination” Supremo Christopher Puplick has resigned over special help he was found to have given to his little (male) friend "Bunny". Puplick was noted for his view that Muslims can do no wrong.

There are some twits in the world. Note this comment:
"THE quick coalition victory in Iraq was, in some ways, unfortunate, former intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie has claimed. "It has legitimised the war in some people's minds and it will embolden (US President) Bush and (Prime Minister) Howard to be more reckless." ... "I don't believe we should have ignored Iraq or walked away from Saddam Hussein. "But a war had to be the option of last resort." He does not however say what the other options might have been or mention that Saddam had in fact been given 11 years to co-operate before war was resorted to.

I note that there has been a lot of media attention to the decision of some Southern U.S. High School students to hold a private party for whites only. I am rather amazed that anyone questions the right of people to invite whom they choose to their private parties. I am also glad (and a bit surprised) that it is not illegal -- yet.

I am amused that it has now become possible to defame a Presidential candidate by saying that he looks "French"! Traditional English derison of the "Frogs" has now taken root in the USA. Now why would that be?

A very successful Australian -- Rupert Murdoch -- says of Australian education: ""I think the education establishment with its insistence on tenure at a tertiary level, and its power at primary and secondary level - setting bullshit syllabuses - is really doing the country an immense disservice," he says." Good to see someone with his inflence saying so.

The Daily Telegraph UK has an article on the Katyn Forest massacre -- a Soviet deed long blamed by Leftists on the Nazis.

Peter Hitchens thinks British membership of the EU may have been a good idea back in the socialist '60s but the international trend to free trade means it's now obsolete, and exposes the Brits to an ever-sprouting Brussels bureaucracy..

In my academic posting of May 2nd here I try to introduce some rigour into the way psychologists and sociologists study alienation -- a concept that goes back to Marx, among others.

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SORRY! LEFT/RIGHT IS ALL THERE IS

In my academic postings of April 30th and May 1st. here are two published articles that have never been available online previously. I have scanned them in because they deal with one of the prime beliefs of libertarians -- that the division of politics into Left and Right is inadequate and that there is a second dimension of political orientation which is generally called Authoritarian/Libertarian. So you can be a conservative authoritarian or a Leftist authoritarian or just a lover of authority in general ... etc.

As a libertarian myself, I think that policies can be analysed in that way but, as a psychologist, I was also interested in whether people in general organize their beliefs in such a two-dimensional way. That they do is a claim of long standing in the psychological literature -- going back at least to 1954. There is however, much fault to be found with the evidence on the question and I review that in the two articles concerned. I then go on to do two further survey research studies of my own which were designed to maximize the chances of such a two dimensional organization of people's attitudes appearing. Unfortunately it did not work out that way. The fact of the matter is that it is only the good old Left/Right dimension that influences the clustering of people's attitudes in the general population. I have more to say on the question here. As the articles were originally published in a major academic journal, they can be a little bit technical but if you realize that "Orthogonal" is statistician-speak for "unrelated" or "at right-angles to" that should help a lot.

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THE DOUBLE TAX INJUSTICE

Greenspan says the tax cut is not needed for growth. How about the tax cut being needed for justice and equity? At present US company profits are taxed when the company reports them and then taxed again when the shareholder gets them as dividends. Why should people who rely on income from investments (mostly retired folks) be singled out for double tax? In Australia a LEFTIST government abolished tax on dividends years ago.

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SOME FUNNIES

Taranto's latest WSJ column is a good one. I liked this:

"China has prepared a reading list for people staying at home after karaoke parlors and cinemas were shut to stem the spread of SARS," Reuters reports:

Volumes such as the "16th Party Congress Report," former President Jiang Zemin's "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" and "A History of the Chinese Communist Party" headed the list of nearly 100 titles, compiled by China's publishing regulator”.

And he heads a comment on Mexico's Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) celebrations with: "I Cinco, Therefore I Ammo". Descartes would turn in his grave.

I was a bit saddened though by the fact that he had good cause to start off another report with: "Just for the heck of it, let's make fun of the Germans". Germany has indeed sunk low these days. For the people who gave the world Bach, Beethoven and Mozart to be so mocked does show that they have lost their way.

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ELSEWHERE

Tony Blair says that the image of GWB as an intellectual lightweight is “complete bull” and “total nonsense”. Since no-one criticizes Blair’s powers, he is in a pretty strong position to know. His account of GWB is worth reading, in fact.

“Israel urged Britain on Thursday to crackdown on anti-Israeli incitement among British Muslims after Israeli police blamed a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on two Britons”. And it would be about time too.

Fidel Castro, addressing a May Day rally of hundreds of thousands of people, accused the United States on Thursday of trying to provoke a war with Cuba. What garbage. The US could take out Castro any time it likes. They just prefer to wait for him to die.

An interesting argument here that it is individual liberty rather than democracy that should come first. Very relevant to Iraq where democracy might install a government of religious fanatics.

“The Bush administration has drafted sweeping plans to remake Iraq's economy in the American image. Hoping to establish a free-market economy in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the US is calling for the privatisation of state-owned industries such as parts of the oil sector, forming a stockmarket complete with electronic trading and fundamental tax reform.” One can only hope that it works.

Condoleezza Rice gives the French and the Russians a good blast here

The United States yesterday closed its last major military mission in Turkey. It is the Turks who have made themselves irrelevant, of course. 95% of Turks opposed toppling Saddam.

Here is an odd one: AIDS patients do not catch SARS. Not much comfort, though.

A true and very moving story in the WSJ under the title "A marine comes home". It reminds us that Hollywood is not America. Thank goodness!

The Wicked one reports that not all craziness is in politics.

Chris Brand has a review of Freudianism and psychoanalysis in which he gives a good short history of it. He is surprisingly sympathetic to it considering that most other academic psychologists regard it as mere quackery.

Michael Darby has a speech from one politician who does seem to want to do something about crime.

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THE “NOBLE SAVAGE”

A reader writes:

I came across this PDF which has a great discussion of the history of the 'noble savage' concept over the centuries and how it has been adopted by Greens. He points out that there is a body of recent scientific work that undermines the idea of indigenous people as conservationists, and that attempts force indigenous people into playing that role either backfire on the conservationists or harm the economic progress of the indigenous people. The historical discussion of the noble savage is the best part of the paper.

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CHINA AGAIN

The address for my “China” blog is rather long and ponderous so might give problems for readers in China who obviously cannot use the hyperlink here (See to the Left of this page). So for their convenience I have set up a shortcut address for it: jonjayray.tk Just typing that into the address field of your browser should get you to my “China” blog. If that does not work, http://jonjayray.tk will.

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MORE “GREEN” FOLLIES

This book review tells some of the story of the Amazon misadventures of pop star STING and "THE BODY SHOP"

A couple of older links looking at what the 1990s Green-Left love affair with the rainforests actually accomplished: Ben & Jerry's "rain forest friendly" business goes sour and a Brazilian perspective on the western left's rain forest follies

A look at the corporate money behind the US green activist outfit “Rainforest Action Network” (RAN). It is interesting to note the predominance of money from clothing and oil interests. Although this probably represents philanthropy from multi-millionaire heirs with a guilt complex, cynics may note that firms like Esprit and Levi often compete with cheap Third World imports and harming agricultural development in these countries may help their bottom line!

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LADY THATCHER SPEAKS

FORMER British leader Margaret Thatcher has praised Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair for his leadership during the war with Iraq. "The prime minister (Blair) has proved a bold and effective war leader," Thatcher, 77, said on a video played to 2000 business leaders at the annual Institute of Directors convention at London's Royal Albert Hall.

"I do not think many people imagined when the Conservatives formed a government in 1979 that we would so effectively transform the economy, but I am quite sure that nobody thought we would so thoroughly transform our opponents," Thatcher said during the 10-minute interview.

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ELSEWHERE

Carnival of the Vanities is up again. And a jolly good job Dave has made of it.

Arts & Letters rate this old Wired interview with Julian Simon as one of their "classics"

There is now a campaign to revoke the Pulitzer Prize from "Stalin apologist" Walter Duranty

The BBC stands accused of repeating the KGB line ..again

Blogging as a business tool (?)

Crikey is a site that provides independent analysis of Australian political and business news. It is now rating two US libertarian think tanks' web sites (the Independent Institute and Cato foundation) as their recommendations as the best 'think tanks'.

Chris Brand notes that some U.S. black activists are getting the message that educational rigour is the way for their kids to get ahead.

The Wicked one has a list of some amazing political coincidences.

Michael Darby tackles briefly the issue of whether a committment to individual liberty entails support for “open-door” immigration.

In my academic posting of April 29th. here I look at the use of “forced choice” questionnaires and point out their folly.

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A SCIENTIST’S REPLY TO THE GREENIES

One of my readers has written in with an extensive review of the work of Philip Stott (Professor of Biogeography at the University of London). I reproduce the email below:

This PDF document (49 pages) on this page provides a detailed critique of modern rain forest mythology -- pointing out that rain forests are not nearly as “endangered” as we are usually told. His views are also summarised here.

Stott runs a website dealing with 'little green lies' here that covers a lot of green ground. He seems to be a regular guest on some BBC radio programmes on environmental matters, so he is not an ivory tower scribbler. Here is his "Quote of the week":
"The problem with predicting the course of global climate change... is that global climate is too complex to be adequately modeled."

Stott has lots of other good articles including this one on the Le Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, which are a must see for anyone interested in science and the history of the Earth. I remember them as one of the highlights of my time in LA. The lesson of this great museum is "In nature, change is the only constant. Get used to it." If you ever get a chance to visit the Pits and the associated museum do so.

He has a discussion of his big picture overview of ecology and environmentalism here. He says ecology is in a crisis that the popularisers have yet to acknowledge. The scientific frontline is increasingly reporting a dynamic, open ended 'non-equilibrium' real natural world but the "rear echelon" of popularisers, pundits and propagandists are stuck with an obsolete language of the balance of nature, equilibrium era.

My guess is that the front line may be reluctant to confront these fallacies as it may impact funding and public support for their scientific work as well as conservation programmes. If so, this is really a Faustian bargain for the scientists and can 'cut both ways', they risk having all their professional expertise ignored or tainted by undue association with doom merchants. Stott sees the language of ecology as the hang up and in some ways his comments remind me of the focus 'post-modernist' critics who usually focus on language semiotics etc, however Stott is arguing that the empirical realities are being hidden by obsolete lingo where the post-mods see empiricism as just another lingo.

His discussion of global warming is to the point:

[Global warming] ..is thus in the same category as ..., the assumption that other planets are inhabited by rational beings. While such semi-empirical entities are possible, they are ultimately neither verifiable nor falsifiable because of the continuing technical limitations involved.

The technical limitations of our current climate models and knowledge are, ...horrendous. Even the.. (IPCC) admits openly that we know next-to-nothing about 75% of the main factors implicated. We therefore cannot allow the global warming alarmists' key antinomy to pass unchallenged: namely, that while climate is an exceedingly complex non-linear chaotic system, we can control climate by adjusting just one set of factors.

While the phenomenon of global warming is an empty worry, fundamentally unverifiable and unfalsifiable in a strict scientific sense, it is one that has been empowered with a greater meaning by those who have the motive to do so. Accordingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, since the early 1990s its intrinsic linguistic emptiness has been filled by a mighty myth, especially in Europe. This myth asserts that current global warming is both faster and worse than at any previous time, that it is not natural, but must be caused by human hubris, and that the main culprit has to be the United States.

The concept has been translated into a matter of faith, transcending "the theoretical use of reason." For the good folk involved, following Kant, global warming has become neither a matter of knowledge nor of opinion, but wholly a matter of morality.

He also makes some interesting points about savannas...

they dominate the tropical world. Savannas occupy no less than 45 per cent of South America, 65 per cent of Africa, and 60 per cent of Australia. .. the majority of people living in the tropics, comprising no less than one-fifth of the world's population, inhabit the savannas, which form the core of the world's monsoonal lands that overall support some 50 per cent of the global population. The savannas in consequence are the single most important terrestrial environment, and are both older than and as diverse as the tropical rain forests. ..

He has a brief intro into the increasingly important field of savanna studies here

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ELSEWHERE

It looks like some Iraqis are about as grateful for being liberated as the French are. No doubt they feel “humiliated” that they could not throw off tyranny themselves. What scum!

ETON College is to switch money that it spends on scholarships for the brightest children to funding places based on financial need. How ridiculous! What use is an elite college going to be for a poor kid?

Chris Brand reports poll results showing that the average Brit is a lot more tough-minded than the British government.

The Wicked one is derisive about homoeopathy.

Michael Darby reproduces an emotional speech about Australia’s past wars by a very decent man -- our Prime Minister.

In my academic posting of April 28th. here I comment on another example of naivety about racism by a Leftist psychologist.

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MY “CHINA” BLOG

The Chinese seem to have become really serious about internet censorship in recent months. They re-blocked Blogspot some time ago and lots of other sites are blocked too -- including at least some Lycos and some Yahoo. I have therefore decided to do my tiny bit towards keeping communications open by putting a mirror of my blog up on a site that China does NOT block. I keep all my blog entries as a file so once I have written my blog entries for the day, it takes me only a couple of minutes extra to put them up on a second site. So in future my blog will also be accessible at the following address: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jonjayray/tripod.html. The site concerned is hosted by my local ISP so it may stay too insignificant to be blocked by China. With ISP hosting, the site is also advertising-free, which is a bit of a bonus. I will also be putting up my “China” postings several hours before I put them on Blogspot. Because Blogspot is so trouble-prone, I do not post there until just after midnight, California time, in the hope that the load and the errors will be minimal then. I would be much obliged if anyone with contacts in China would let them know of the new site. I even have some archives there so people can catch up with what was posted in the last 6 weeks or so.

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THE POISONOUS HUFFINGTON

Arianna Huffington, that Leftist enemy of all things American (including big cars), claims that the rapid defeat of Saddam proves that he was no danger in the first place. Since no-one ever claimed that his armies were a threat to the West (that he was developing WMDs that could get into the hands of terrorists was the fear) this is so silly only a Leftist would believe it but David Horowitz has weighed in with a comprehensive demolition of her article in his latest newsletter. He notes that Huffington is one of the many Leftists who single out two Jews in the pro-war camp for demonization and has this comment:

In fact, given the result of the war, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle - to single out the Jews - are more properly seen as moral heroes than as military predators. They have spent twenty-years toiling in the Defense and Foreign Policy communities to effect the liberation of millions of Shi'ites, who were systematically murdered and oppressed by Saddam's regime, knowing full well that these very Shi'ites hate them as Jews and would persecute and oppress them if they could. Yet Wolfowitz and Perle persisted in their efforts because they thought it was the right thing to do for America, and the right thing to do for the Iraqis as well.

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ELSEWHERE

Wow! There IS a treatment for SARS available. I hope the bureaucrats let it off the leash soon.

How amusing! France and Germany are to form a new military alliance. Since the average Frenchman still despises the Boche any co-operative endeavours might last 5 minutes at most.

An imperial America? Some want the USA to stay in Iraq for years and TEACH them to be democratic. Fat chance! The USA has done enough for Iraqis by getting rid of Saddam without getting bogged down any further.

“If there was ever a time when it was evident that the UN and its Security Council are useless institutions for solving the major problems facing the world, what happened in Iraq could not be a greater demonstration of that”. Good to see that I agree with Arabic News on something!

North Korea has now put up its shopping list of what it wants in exchange for totally abandoning its nuclear program. Iraq has obviously rattled them. And it shows that GWB was right to respond calmly to their sabre-rattling.

An official audit of Australia’s biggest “natural remedy” manufacturer has found that they were “risking lives by releasing products despite failing to test raw ingredients, or fudging the results of tests. Equipment at its headquarters in Sydney was not cleaned between batches, potentially contaminating products.” A nasty one for the faddists. I have always stuck to what I get from the pharmacist, myself. An old friend of mine had a business just opposite a “health” food retailer and he remarked to me once that he had never seen such unhealthy-looking people as those he saw going in and out of its doors.

The pathetic socialists of New Zealand now cannot provide enough electricity to keep their factories running, let alone keep homes warm in the cold weather. Sounds like Romania under the Communists.

The huge lesbian in charge of the police force of the Australian State of Victoria has now decreed that she will take “affirmative action” to discriminate against male applicants for police jobs. The criminals must be laughing.

Of course, Leftist teachers are not to blame for this: “An 18-member panel of educators has found that writing, which their report calls one of the most important skills students can learn, is woefully neglected in most American schools“. But I am sure the kids know a lot about "Greenhouse" etc.

The Wicked one thinks that any “alliance” with the French is now finished.

Michael Darby has a letter pointing out that “casual” work is a great loophole that allows workers to escape fronm the rigid grip of the unions.

Chris Brand has been told that the two “churchgoing” girls gunned down recently in a drive-by shooting in Birmingham, England, were in fact black prostitutes. Maybe they did go to church too.

My academic posting of April 27th. here is one of my many assaults on the unfounded claim that chronically busy people are prone to heart attacks.

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FIXING IRAQ

Steven Hamori Writes:

I read an article by an Arab intellectual where he theorized that one of the Middle East's problems was that the governments controlled the main revenue source. Hence, the people are an afterthought. In a clever rearrangement of words he wrote, 'no representation without taxation'. Made sense.

So, I'd suggest giving the citizens of Iraq all (or almost all) of their oil profits as a yearly rebate check. Then, their elected officials will have to tax the money back as income tax. The citizens will be involved in the process, and not just an after thought...

Three other benefits:
The people will have money to invest. After awhile, maybe oil won't be the main industry. Commerce and enterprise are up there with democracy in making a people more accepting of others (not to mention, giving them something to do other than worrying about us and Israel)...

Second, it would put the democratic government in a position to prosecute those who refuse to participate (with the government) as tax evaders.. That sounds a lot less glorious than whatever spin the enemies of democracy will want to put on their actions.

Third, with this much money in circulation people who want to 'opt out' or not be too involved with the government, well they could still do so. If part of the noncoperation we are receiving, from some, is due to a fight over resources (they want governmental power to obtain control of funding) then this could lessen that. People will have the disposable income to fund both the democratic government and their local Imam's projects. Hopefully, religious competition with government could be reduced.

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ELSEWHERE

Well, at least everybody seems to agree that postwar Iraq must be governed by a Federal system. Total independence for the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites would be best but Federation might just work. Why anybody wants to force totally different people to live under the one roof escapes me.

A UN official talking sense! THE UN's chief nuclear monitor Mohamed ElBaradei has said the world should send North Korea a zero-tolerance message on nuclear weapons

The United States is said to be considering a selective shipping blockade against North Korea to prevent the communist state following through on its threat to proliferate nuclear weapons. About time they did something!

The Hollywood anti-war brigade seem to have vanished Airheads!

The Italian monk who gave us Cappuccino coffee is about to become a saint! That should be popular.

Rather silly to be banning horse-meat sales. Horses are just cattle that run fast.

A good story here about how Iraqi soldiers refused to fight US forces because they saw the US as liberators.

About time! The Bush administration is pressing to divert the financing of Palestinian activities away from Yasir Arafat's control.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has ruled that even illegal immigrants who have no known links to terrorist groups can be detained indefinitely. Australia has been doing it for years, of course.

“U.S. troops will stay in Iraq and Afghanistan until stable, democratic governments have taken control, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saturday”. Looks like a long stay.

Mohammad Mohsen Zubeidi, the just-arrested “Mayor” of Baghdad, supports the restoration of the Iraqi monarchy! He’s pretty feisty for a monarchist. I can't say I care much for other Arab monarchies (yuk!) but European monarchies do very well

The rainforest is not as endangered as we have been told

Fidel Castro has defended the executions of three ferryboat hijackers as a deterrent to a mass exodus. In other words, Leftism is so great that you have to shoot people to stop them escaping from it. Funny that nobody tries to shoot people who leave the USA!

Michael Darby has a story about a senior Zimbabwean “judge” acting like a bandit -- seizing a farm off a white farmer aged in his 80s.

Chris Brand discusses the big topics of psychoticism and psychopathy.

The Wicked one has a post about how disastrous a restricted diet can be.

In my academic posting of April 26th. here, I look at an example of the sort of gross stupidity that shows how unscientific modern-day academic psychology is.

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FASCISM AND THE "THIRD WAY"

A reader writes:

I agree with your analysis of the leftist roots of Nazism. Although in some ways the fascists are actually closer to the modern "Third Way" people like Clinton, Blair, the Australian Democrats than the traditional "working class" social democrats or revolutionary marxist communists. The third way people try to be all things to all people, they don't put one social class above all others, and yet insist on putting the collective interest above all. They don't wish to eliminate private enterprise but regulate it or better still co-opt it, usually through some kind of corporatist structure. Same with the unions, the churches, etc etc.

As I see it there are three main differences between the modern third wayers and the fascists. First, the fascists were advocates of revolution to replace constitutional government by what they saw as "more modern" and "efficient" system of national authoritarian dictatorship. Second modern third wayers are usually strong in their anti-racism, indeed they make anti-racism a centerpiece of their ideology. The anti-semitism of the Nazis, not equalled by the Italian fascists, has no equivalent amongst the modern third wayers. Thirdly, the the third wayers are not advocates of foreign military expansion to glorify their homeland nation state.

These three differences are major differences, and I certainly don't think we need to worry about Tony Blair setting himself up as Fuehrer, but we should note that the three differences aren't quite the rock solid barriers you'd might imagine.

Firstly, third wayers are generally "democratic centralists" and favour constitutional reforms of all kinds that enpower the central state at the expense of private power, local or state government. In someways they are worse than outright abolitionists as they prefer to maintain the facade but gut the real power from the private and local sectors. They are not strict constructionists of their respective constitutions and favour reforms (like the main Republican lobby group in Australia) that centralise power. They have no problems with using technical strategems to subvert their constitutions, for example, through the use of international treaty powers to extend their agenda. They prefer central national power and supra-national power (EU, UN, Kyoto, WTO etc) because they see it as more 'modern' and 'efficient' than the 'messier' alternatives of individual freedom and local autonomy.

I will concede that Blair has advanced the cause of Welsh and Scottish nationalism somewhat but this may be just a tactical concession. In most other countries, third wayers are opposed to traditional federal systems and sometimes advocate 'regional' government as a sop, with "overall direction" and all the financial powers retained by the central government.

Secondly, third wayers are genuine anti-racists for the most part, at least insofar as anyone can be labelled anti-racist. But then again neither Germany or Italy in the 1930s was exactly what we'd call a "multi-cultural" society today. Except for Nazi anti-semitism, the "official racialism" of those regimes was very much oriented to national unity around the central state, reducing regional, religious or class loyalties to benefit the central state. And of course the Italian fascists were nowhere near as anti-semitic as the Nazis.

In some ways today "multi-culturalism" (at least in it's more dogmatic versions) is used by the Third Wayers to advance their democratic centralist agenda. The dominant ethnic communities of their society are generally conservative and generally oppose centralization. Multiculturalism can be used to 'divide and rule' (a tactic the British used in India to maintain the Raj) to enpower the central authority, whilst building constituencies dependent on central government grants and privileges. So in some ways multiculturalism today can play a similar role for the third wayers as "official racialism" did for the Nazis and fascists. Both can be tactics that reinforce the central state.

There is no real third way equivalent to nazi anti-semitism, although "xenophobes" have been cast as scapegoats for policy failure by multiculturalist states and have been subject to extra-legal intimidation, often by ideologically motivated thugs. The irony of course is that 'xenophobia' as witnessed by Hansonism, Le Pen etc is almost always a populist protest movement, a late growing reaction to policy failures by the central state. A further irony is that in many cases these 'xenophobic reactionary' movements are at least as ethnically diverse in their membership as the third way and 'anti-racist' opponents.

Third, the third wayers today are not exactly demanding "lebensraum" overseas but they do not seem to be shrinking violets when foreign military adventures are called either. In particular they have had a major role in advocating and supporting the new wave of "humanitarian interventions" we have seen since the end of the Cold War. Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, East Timor. The list is getting quite long. Blair in a recent press conference let slip that he found the 'humanitarian mission' in Iraq more to his liking than the anti-WMD or anti-terror missions. Most of Blair's fellow third wayers would have supported the Iraq War unambiguously had UN blessing been wangled. Maybe had France had a socialist government rather than a conservative one they would have acted less 'nationalistically' and signed on with Les Anglo-Saxons. In Australia, Hawke was the first Labor PM to advocate overseas intervention, breaking a near century long Labor tradition of isolationism in his support for the first Gulf War.

Listening to many third wayers and they seem to favour foreign intervention the most when the national interests of the homeland are the least. This is the opposite of the conservative notion of foreign intervention only where clear national interests are at stake. To third wayers, it is almost sinful to pursue your national security interests abroad, but they reject both isolationism and pacifism. What they favour is multi-national and/or super-national power. And this power is to be projected to support their ideas of social reform and harmony. In fact this is merely projecting onto the world the same democratic centralist agenda they pursue at home. In short "imperialism without nationalism".

Should we be unduly alarmed at these third way trends? I don't think so, the third wayers are basically decent chaps, democrats and they support the rule of law, however we need to recognise that their ideology is not quite as benevolent as they would have us believe, and sometimes the worst case scenario prevails.

I think this is an interesting thesis but also think that it runs up against the problem of defining the "Third Way". This site gives one view of the matter but, as I see it, the term is used for a pretty disparate bunch of characters -- from what I would call authoritarians like Lee Kuan Yew to moderate conservatives like Tony Blair to amoral centrists like Bill Clinton to Leftist ignoramuses like Australia's Democrats. Though in general, I would think that ALL modern-day Leftists are "Third way" in some sense now that Communism is dead. Only the loonies now think that government ownership of industry is any answer to anything.

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ELSEWHERE

Michael Darby has a review of a book of stories about Australian history.

Chris Brand thinks British academia is in a sadly declined state.

In my academic posting of April 25th. here, I review the research findings about stereotyping and show that what goes on in sterotyping is quite different from what is popularly believed.

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LOTS OF GOOD STUFF:

There is a short article that gives a burst of common-sense about human cloning in The Scientific American here Worth a read for the worry-warts.

The man who founded modern genetics with his discovery of the DNA double helix
wants governments, politicians and lobbyists to butt out of the genetic engineering debate. He says "I am against society imposing rules on individuals for how they want to use genetic knowledge. Just let people decide what they want to do."

Here is one feminist who has a realistic perspective: "The Great Truth is that women in our society constitute one of the most privileged and powerful classes of human beings on earth. The challenge is to make women believe in their power. "Woman as victim" is an idea whose time has passed."

Not content with dominating the universities, the Leftists and the Greenies are now devoting themselves to enlisting children -- even in kindergarten. See
here and here and here. Many of the kids will eventually rebel against all the stuff preached at them, however.

New technology that may allow for the manufacture of artificial oil from waste products looks like postponing yet again the doom that Greenies are always predicting for us.

Remember the big story last year about a Swedish team discovering that potato chips (“fries”), and other foods cooked at high temperatures cause cancer (see here)? The story has now been quietly declared a myth

A recent review of Peter Hitchens' analysis of how the politically correct helped crime mug the UK (some extracts from Hitchen's book are here and here)

An American ex-Marxist outlines how living in the UK helped her give up on socialism and liberalism

Here’s a petition that I support -- that the USA withdraw from the UN. It is being run by The Federalist so might have some impact.

The British government’s Foreign Secretary said the war could have been avoided if France and Russia had joined Britain and the United States in giving Saddam Hussein "a really tough ultimatum" on getting rid of weapons of mass destruction. I supect that he is right about that.

The BBC is criticizing the way some US TV programs covered the Iraq war! That’s rich -- when Britain’s own navy turned the BBC off in disgust.

Ann Coulter is good on the “controversial” topic of Christians doing relief work in Iraq: “Christians who are willing to leave the safety and comfort of America to go to barbarous lands, risking disease, pestilence and murder, simply because they so love their fellow man -- these are the miscreants who inflame and enrage liberals more than Saddam Hussein and his rape rooms ever did.”

Susan Blackmore is associated with TRANSFORM, a UK organization campaigning to legalise recreational drugs, their immediate goal is for a genuine and independent cost benefit audit of the UK drug enforcement expenditure.

Susan Blackmore took up psychological research in order to explore para-psychology with an "open mind" as often demanded by the New Agers, but after 30 years of work in this field she has given up (see her comments here) and is now a confirmed skeptic and supporter of Richard Dawkins (see here) ...who regards Darwin's theory as the 'best idea anybody ever had'

Chris Brand thinks that political correctness is going to sabotage the postwar reconstruction of Iraq.

Michael Darby has some poems about the personal tragedies of war.

China hand and everyone else in his part of China have been forbidden to travel by the Chinese government as part of its SARS crackdown.

The Wicked one suggests that an ultra powerful Cadillac car recently released must be for very small men.

In my academic posting of April 24th. here, I show that liking your own group or homeland (as in patriotism) does NOT lead to prejudice against other groups (such as blacks) -- contrary to what many psychologists claim.

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AN INSIDER’S COMMENT ON BRITAIN’S “NATIONAL HEALTH”

A British doctor who started out as an idealistic supporter of socialized medicine has been disillusioned:

I assume that most doctors would want to see that patients who had the greatest need and least capacity to help themselves, would be the ones who are most likely to receive help through a State system. Sadly, the experience of my professional lifetime is the opposite. The NHS is largely a system run by the middle class for the benefit of the middle class and with emphasis on the clinical conditions most likely to be suffered by the middle class. Services are poorest, and the doctors least well qualified and equipped, in the areas where the demand is greatest.

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LEFTISTS TOOK AL-SAHHAF SERIOUSLY!

A lovely quote (Via British Politics) from a British Leftist rag of April 3rd:

“Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf’s briefings of the international media have attracted attention for their informative and often cogent content, in contrast to the contradictions of the coalition spokespersons, who have had to field numerous questions regarding the misinformation they were spinning the day before."

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ELSEWHERE

Western Australia has introduced minor price controls on petrol (gasoline). The result? On average Western Australian motorists pay more than other Australians for it. Surprise! Surprise! There is nothing like unfettered competition for keeping prices down. Argentina’s Leftist dictator Peron threatened to shoot any shopkeeper who put his prices up. Maybe the Leftist West Australian government should try that!

An Australian flag now flies over al-Asad air base. Once home of the Iraqi air force. Nice that we made a difference. General Franks says we made a surprisingly large difference.

An initiative to eliminate Spam! Good if it works. Spam is getting overwhelming. I and many others spend a significant amount of time every day just deleting it. The best defence against spam, however, is one that we can all contribute to -- NEVER buy anything that is advertised via spam or popups.

Antiwar reporter gets the sack: It’s a long way from getting balanced journalism but it’s a start.

In his latest newsletter, David Horowitz says that the "anti-war" Left does not in fact care about Iraq at all. It is led by old-guard communists who care only about their hatred of American success: "The Neo-communist left opposes America's efforts to promote freedom and supports (sometimes "critically") America's declared enemies not because of what America does, but because of what they think America is. The Neo-communist left is impervious to facts because it is a political messianism, in essence a religious movement. Its delusions of social redemption are fed on a rich diet of anti-American myths".


Did I ever say that Leftists are exhibitionists? “Two war protesters smeared themselves with ketchup and cherry-flavored Kool-Aid and briefly interrupted a lecture given by a Pratt & Whitney Aircraft executive at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.”

Most university history professors are now Leftist and that is showing up in the grossly distorted history textbooks that kids are being given to read. Would you believe that the Vikings are now being portrayed as peaceful? Neil Gaiman has a good spoof of it all. Via England’s Sword.

Limbic Nutrition calls a spade a spade in discussing London’s huge problem with black crime -- something the London police are not allowed to do.

Bleeding Brain notes how most major countries washed their hands of Saddam and concludes: "The U.S, along with Britain and Australia are now clearly holding the rudder to the ark of civilization."

Chris Brand has a post on the failure of feminism to meet women’s needs.

The Wicked one notes that the Australian monarchy is not just for old fogies.

Michael Darby commemorates Anzac day and says a special thanks to Australia’s veterans of the Vietnam war.

China hand says extramarital sex has become common in his part of China but that most people turn a blind eye to it.

I have just put up a small collection of cartoons (non-political) that I found amusing HERE

In my academic posting of April 23rd. here, I point out that older women (but not older men) are prone to present themselves in an unrealistically favourable light.

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SOME SURPRISING MILITARY HISTORY

There has of course been much justified congratulation given to the US for its use of precision guided bombs to make sure that only the intended military targets in Iraq were hit. I wonder however how many people realize that Nazi Germany also successfully deployed precision guided bombs in WWII, over 50 years ago. I wonder why we took so long to catch up? The Nazis also of course used cruise missiles and ballistic missiles long before anyone else. If Hitler had let his generals run the Russian campaign they would have won the war. Feldmarschall von Manstein destroyed two Soviet armies even AFTER Stalingrad. It was also he who organized the Blitzkrieg through France -- and his conquest of the Crimean peninsula is legendary among military historians: a frontal assault against superior forces who had nearly every advantage: a fortified position, command of the sea, the air, and tanks, while his army had not one tank.

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THE GINGRICH BLAST

Gingrich made some good points in his blast at the State Dept.:

He dismissed the State Department aid arm, the U.S. Agency for International Development, as useless and said that it should be abolished.
Instead he advocated the Army Corps of Engineers the job of rebuilding Iraq, saying that in Afghanistan, where USAID is responsible for reconstruction, "not a single mile of road has been paved in two years."

He strongly opposed Powell's reported trip to Syria as long as the Arab state continues to support terrorist groups. Instead, he urged the administration to take advantage of the opportunity brought by the victory in Iraq and "apply genuine economic, diplomatic and political pressure." ... "The concept of the American secretary of state going to Damascus to meet with a terrorist-supporting, secret police-wielding dictator is ludicrous," said Gingrich.

I certainly think that the Syrians should be VERY heavily leant upon at the moment.

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ELSEWHERE

There is a fascinating piece of academic research reported in the latest issue of the highly respectable Journal of Developmental Psychogy. The researchers found that even among 19 month old children there were highly recognizable differences in aggression and that most of the difference in aggression was genetically inherited. So some kids are just born mean -- for all that Leftists would like to tell you to the contrary.

On 9th November last year I took exception to the constant Leftist insulting of Britain’s Prime Minister as “Bush’s poodle” and proposed here instead: “Let's resurrect a famous old metaphor for Britain on this occasion and start referring to Tony Blair as "Bush's Bulldog".” I am pleased therefore to see that the Editor of the “Washington Times” has had the same idea. He also gives the Australian Prime Minister a guernsey in the same article. Via The Federalist

I never thought I would agree with a Leftist about “asylum-seeker” policy but I agree with this comment about the Vietnamese boat people presently headed for Australian waters and who look to be in danger of sinking in the middle of the ocean: “There is only one humanitarian option here -- that is for the Australian authorities to get these people off these boats that are death traps and ensure that they are secure," I have great sympathy for the hard-working Vietnamese. They put up a great fight to save their country from Communism but were left in the lurch by a peacenik-influenced US Congress who cut off their military supplies.

What cheek! The UN has ruled that a sign at an Australian sportsground is offensive and should be taken down even though the Australian High Court has already ruled to the contrary! The sign is in any case just an example of perverse Australian humour but nobody would expect rthe UN to understand that. The sign refers to a famous Australian cricketer called “nigger” Brown -- called that because he was so pale-skinned!

A fun recap here of what the punditocracy were saying about the Iraq war while it was actually going on (not to mention what they said before it started!). They were declaring it to be a “quagmire” almost up until the day that Saddam’s statue fell. Interesting that the President and his team were infinitely more accurate and reliable than the media moaners were!

Even the San Francisco Chronicle sees that Senator Santorum’s rejection of legal activism concerning gays may not hurt him politically. What he said was no more derogatory than what “liberals” routinely say about Christians, conservatives and others they disapprove of. “Those who live in glass houses .....”

Carnival of the Vanities is up again. The Left get a bit more of a look-in this time.

China hand has some skeptical comments about the Chinese response to SARS.

On his other site, China hand has a snarl at the Leftist Australian media. As an ex-Leftie himself, he really feels these things.

Michael Darby has a report that “low cost” public housing in fact costs heaps more than privately-built housing.

Chris Brand notes that Britain’s favourable treatment of “asylum-seekers” is fueling a rise in support for the British National Party -- previously seen as “far Right”

The Wicked one is pleased to note that drinking tea is much better for your health than coffee-drinking is.

In my academic posting of April 22nd. here, I note the amazing "mental flexibility" that scientists can show in resisting demonstrations that their findings are spurious and point out that the phenomenon is widespread among psychologists.

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THE IRAQ LOOTING

A reader writes:

The "Looters in Iraq" issue has something of a life of it's own and facts are few and far between but this hasn't stopped all kinds of pundits from weighing in from every possible angle (including the idea that the Iraqis are just getting their own back). So maybe we can play the game and look at this "hypothetical" situation: Imagine if before the war Bush, Blair or Howard went back to their electorates (or, better still, went to the UN) and said that in addition to combat forces, they also want x thousand extra cops, jailers and peacekeeping troops to send in behind the combat forces to ensure that the iraqis don't pilfer their public hospitals, don't destroy their schools, don't loot food aid warehouses and don't smash their own museums. Can you imagine the response?

My guess is that such a request would be painted by leftists as a grossly insulting example of western arrogance and racism. Muslim and NGO spokespersons would be saying 'ordinary Iraqis are civilised and just don't behave like that'. A few ex-pat Iraqis and foreign visitors to Iraq would come on TV and tell how they left the house in Basra unlocked for years over there without being robbed. "You really want those extra troops to impose your will on a reluctant people, not to protect them".

Of course, assuming you got your peacekeepers, and once they had prevented social chaos, the same critics would use this success as evidence that your request was unwarranted and unnecessary. Am I being too cynical?

It is probably a good idea not to involve frontline troops too heavily in peacekeeping, so maybe this is why Centcom has not come down hard on Baghdad's "Ali Baba" looters as many Baghdad citizens would like.

British paratroopers in the Cold War were expected to have very short combat survival prospects when pitted against Warsaw Pact troops. So naturally their training and psychology was very aggressive as displayed in the Falklands. But putting them on the streets of Northern Ireland to deal with civil disturbances like "Bloody Sunday" probably only made a bad situation worse.. In fact the commander of the UK Paras in Northern Ireland's seems very cynical about politicians deploying combat troops to deal with civil order situations and then 'hanging them out to dry' when things go wrong.

On the other hand, history has shown, dealing sternly with looters and rioters, including the a credible threat to use deadly force, does seem to bring these situations under control quickly. But the international and domestic political consequences, especially back in the US and UK, if allied troops were to shoot rioters or looters would be enormous, even if it may just be true that most law abiding Baghdad citizens would welcome it.

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GREENS FOR SADDAM

Paul Sheehan lists the many measures of energetic support that Greenpeace worldwide gave to Saddam Hussein. It's "Green" to support a Fascist butcher? "Greenpeace" should be renamed "Redpiece". Saddam was a socialist dictator, after all. A reader adds:

Greenpeace's recent antics in Sydney harbour remind me of when i was a civilian dockyard worker at Garden Island Naval Dockyard in the 1980s where "no nuclear ships" was the flavour of the month. i was co-located with the dockyard's own safety and rescue personnel who, thanks to anti-nuke protestors, had the job of pulling any protestor or unfortunate cop in danger below a ship out of the drink. they were the last line of safety. owing to the risks these stunts (protests is not the right word) created for them, not only on the day of the stunt, but in their training as well... they didn't really share a high opinion of the anti-nuke crowd, despite a healthy cross section of political opinion in the team. Anyhow one day one of the safety team pointed out to me that prominent "peace flotilla" activist Ian Cohen, who has now turned his self-publicity efforts in for a New South Wales parliament (Upper House) seat, used to have his surf ski delivered to the waters of Woolloomooloo Bay courtesy of the roof rack of a commercial TV station's current affairs programme's van!!!

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ELSEWHERE

Somebody has kidnapped an Ayatollah! Should be more of it.

Australia’s major Leftist political party is attacking the conservative government because the government has not given enough tax cuts! Australia is a very conservative country by world standards.

If you have not seen it already, do not miss the hilarious "We were stun-founded" story about Islamic fanatics in Iraq in the WSJ. You will also find there a report that American feminists are supporting a man who allegedly murdered an entirely innocent woman! These hags seem to think that Muslim treatment of women is OK too!

There’s a report on PC Watch that Britain’s socialized medicine system plans to have doctors in its hospitals only during the day! Let us hope that they will at least have doctors on call somewhere nearby in the evenings and at night. Maybe not.

Michael Darby has a letter from one of his readers who is outraged at how the media reported the Iraq war.

The Wicked one is impressed by SOME of the things that the Archbishop of Canterbury says.

Chris Brand wonders whether political realignments in Britain and the USA might be sparked by the Iraq war.

I have just added three more fun pictures to my Picture Page.

In my academic posting of April 21st here, I look at the common view that “stereotyping” is a problem in race relations and point to research results showing that it is not.

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