LUDWIG VON MISES AND "AUSTRIAN" ECONOMICS

Leftist economists have now admitted that the conservative economists such as Von Mises and Hayek were right: "As late as 1989, Samuelson claimed that "The Soviet economy is proof that, contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, a socialist command economy can function and even thrive." But then, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism in 1989-90, economist Robert Heilbroner shocked his colleagues in the socialist world by boldly declaring that the long-standing debate between capitalism and socialism was over. "Capitalism has won, " he confessed. "Socialism has been a great tragedy this century." Furthermore, Heilbroner was forced to change his mind about Mises and the debate over socialism. Following the unexpected collapse of communism, Heilbroner admitted, "It turns out, of course, that Mises was right." And it wasn't long before Paul Samuelson did an about-face in his textbook, labeling Soviet central planning "the failed model."

Great turnabouts in economics: "The gradual transformation of Paul Samuelson from Keynesian to classical economics ... is a major chapter in famous cases of economists changing their minds. Nobody likes to admit he's wrong. You can probably count on your fingers the number of times scholars have renounced their theories and switched positions... Three prominent economists have admitted error and changed their thinking, and we can learn much from their experience."

There is an amazing story here about how the Nazis seized all the papers of Von Mises after he got out of Europe just ahead of them. But the papers were not lost. The Soviets confiscated heaps of Nazi archives after the war and archived them all nicely. And after the fall of the Soviets, Western economists were able to get copies of all of them! More here

And there is even a Batman & Robin episode featuring the "lost" Mises papers: "A female Robin describes in a postscript, "Von Mises' anti-authoritarian ideas were first a threat to the Nazis, then the Soviets, and to all increasingly regulatory governments in our own times. He was against socialism in all its many forms. He was an advocate of individual liberty, free speech, and free thinking"

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

ELSEWHERE

An amazing article here about how the restoration of phonics to the teaching of reading and writing was the personal project of GWB when he was governor of Texas. Minorities in Texas were basically just not learning to read at all before the restoration of phonics but now they almost all do learn to read. As a current Bush advisor said: ""It is amazing to me that Bush is thought of as a right winger who doesn't care about minorities... He saved so many of their lives."

Interesting to read what Mark Twain wrote about his visit to Israel in 1867 -- before the Jews started returning there. There is no mention of the "Palestinians" we are always hearing about in the media these days. As far as Twain could see, the Arabs there were all just Syrians -- indistinguishable from the inhabitants of Syria -- which is on today's Northern border of Israel. There certainly is a Jewish people but not a Palestinian one. The only meaning to the term "Palestinian" is "the Arabs who live in Palestine". And the concept of Palestine itself is essentially a British creation -- what they called that part of the old Ottoman empire that corresponded to the ancient land of Israel. For those who have forgotten, Britain ran most of the Middle East after the defeat of the Turks in World War I.

There is a good article by Richard Dawkins here suggesting that post-modernism in the humanities is a deliberate fraud. I completely agree. These guys are just gaming the system and deceiving the gullible.

The school textbook war: "In few countries are the texts so consistently critical of the United States as they are in Canada, but in a couple of cases the rhetoric is alarming. For national security purposes, we should have read Saudi textbooks years ago, for even while Saudi diplomats were cooing to American officials, Saudi students were reading rants about "Crusader" and "Neo-imperialist" attacks on Islam."

There are almost twice as many female psychiatric patients as men, and more than half of these are prescribed psychiatric drugs... Young or old, women who take tranquilizers and antidepressants are at greater risk than men. So why do adult women willingly take these risks? One answer appears to lie in the obsessions of a sex-and-youth culture that is also beset by feminism. The notion that they can- and, indeed, should -"have it all" has resulted in women feeling defeated, whether they are married with children, "in relationships," or pursuing college and careers. The numerous changes in society, including sexual "freedom," have negatively affected women, contrary to advertisements portraying carefree women using "easy" birth-control patches... Ironically, many women want to perform certain functions, like grocery shopping and caring for children. This was not anticipated when the feminist movement began, and now that females make up half (or more) of the workforce, the results are in: Women on tranqs are overwhelmed by the enormity of their tasks.

A new book, Stalin's British Victims (reviewed here and here), reveals the extent to which members of Britain's Communist Party knew of Stalin's Terror even while it was going on - - and how, even when their own families were among the targets of the Soviet leader's bloodthirsty regime, they still defended his actions for the sake of their dream-world. It shows the power of their inhuman vision for the world and their utter lack of normal human feeling.

The work ethic wanes in the EU while time on the job increases in U.S. "In Europe, nothing happens in August. It is not, of course, that absolutely everyone is on holiday. There are still an unhappy few slogging in to work. But the commuter train is half empty, the flow of traffic at rush hour is uncannily smooth. Virtually no serious decision can be taken in a London office throughout this month because there is always at least one key executive on holiday. See also here.

"People driving or riding in a sport utility vehicle in 2003 were nearly 11 percent more likely to die in an accident than people in cars, the figures show. The government began keeping detailed statistics on the safety of vehicle categories in 1994."

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me here. 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.

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

THE DRIVE

Well, I did the drive yesterday -- from Cairns to Port Douglas. About 35 miles. For about half of the time the road runs right alongside the ocean, with beaches large and small scattered all the way along. It is one of the world's most scenic drives and the wonder is that you can stop at almost any of the many unspoiled beaches and find yourself alone there. If people like to go on vacation amidst crowds, good luck to them, but if you fancy the deserted tropical island experience with none of the inconvenience of a deserted tropical island, you should be booking a flight to Cairns International Airport. It's a longer plane journey than most but droves of the notoriously quality-conscious Japanese seem to think it is worthwhile.

I also spotted another pygmy yesterday. I was sitting on the pavement beside the main street of Port Douglas having a nice cup of tea when a very small dark person walked right by my table: Less than 5' tall with legs like broom-handles. There are obviously still plenty of negrito (pygmy) genes in the area that was until recently dense tropical jungle.

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

MEDICAL MAYHEM

Socialized medicine from one who knows: "In 1970 I created the first NHS group practice in the South Kensington area. I believed in the NHS. I was a politically active member of the Labour Party. I was on the Inner London Local Medical Committee of the British Medical Association. I was the education secretary of the South London faculty of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Within ten years, after a total of sixteen years working for the NHS, I was back in single-handed practice, exclusively in private practice... The philosophical ideas upon which the National Health Service is based are wrong. It is not lack of finance that has destroyed the NHS as an instrument of health care. Nor is it faulty organisational structure. Nor is it over-administration. It is the ideas that are wrong. Over a generation we have seen the provision of health care in the United Kingdom degenerate into a free and comprehensive rotten shambles".

This is an old story but it still illustrates the perils of a government medical service: "About 30 years ago, when I was in the navy, stationed in Charleston, S.C., navy "doctors" had a reputation for being "less than efficient" in most instances. This theory was born out when a friend of mine's wife, who had been pregnant while wearing an IUD, went to the Emergency Room of the Charleston Naval Hospital. She had been told that the IUD may have slipped into the womb, and may still be there, and could cause complications. She was told that if she experienced any of certain symptoms, i.e. rise in temperature, cramps, nausea, etc, to make it to the E.R. right away. Sure enough, one night, she experienced all of the symptoms and went straight to the E.R. The "doctor" who was on duty promptly took her record, without looking at it, moved it from the "in" box to the "out" box. Asking her what her problem was, he explained, "Well, you've got to expect these things when you're 5 months pregnant." She left the Naval Hospital, went straight downtown to the Charleston County Hospital Emergency Room, where she suffered a miscarriage, due to the IUD having been in the womb". (From Jerry Lerman).

Racist doctors? "The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published "Unequal Treatment," a much-heralded report arguing that doctors-- acting deliberately or unconsciously--were giving their minority patients inferior care.... Skeptics of the biased-doctor model, and I count myself among them, do not dispute the troubling existence of a health gap. But we argue that the examining room is not the place to look for its origins..... This argument just got a big boost from researchers at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Center for the Study of Health Care Change in Washington. They showed that white and black patients, on average, do not even visit the same population of physicians-- making the idea of preferential treatment by individual doctors a far less compelling explanation for disparities in health. They show, too, that a higher proportion of the doctors that black patients tend to see may not be in a position to provide optimal care. The dramatic finding, published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, should incite a fundamental shift in thinking. Whether it actually does that is another matter, so entrenched are the pieties about America's racist inclinations"

Long overdue: "Doctors cannot be arrested for properly prescribing narcotic painkillers that are the best treatment for millions of suffering patients, according to new guidelines from pain specialists and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The guidelines, written by leading pain specialists together with the DEA, come because many doctors hesitate to prescribe the powerful drugs, which are heavily regulated because they can be abused by addicts."

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

ELSEWHERE

I don't expect that it is really any surprise to anyone but Jeff Jacoby gives details of how Arafat's PLO uses violence to suppress reporting of anything unfavourable to the Arabs. There is no free press where Arafat holds sway. Even Western journalists are routinely intimidated. Israel, by contrast, has all sorts of media outlets that are fiercely critical of the Israeli government. And the moron Left calls Israel "fascists" and "Nazis". It is clear who the real Fascists are.

"Contrary to widespread belief, it was more likely American voters in Israel, not Florida, who put George W. Bush in the White House four years ago.... Those who doubt that Americans living abroad could tip the balance in 2004 might consider this: Various chads aside, Al Gore received 202 more votes than George W. Bush on Election Day 2000 in Florida. Only after all the overseas votes were counted, including more than 12,000 from Israel alone, was Bush's election victory certified. The margin was 537 votes. In 2000, according to King, Israel was one of the keys to Bush's success. No other foreign country's U.S. citizens contributed more to Bush's narrow Florida victory, he said.... Once in Israel, Zober said, Jewish voters are no longer guided by a presidential candidate's position on domestic issues. Instead, he said, they vote for whoever they think will serve Israel's interests."

Australian philosopher Rafe Champion has a good slapdown for the whine by cultural elites that they do not get nearly as much recognition as elite sportsmen do. Excerpt: "The so-called cultural elites who are subjected to criticism are not generally cultural performers, they are left-wing intellectuals and commentators. For the most part they have not achieved excellence by any objective standard and they are not railed against in those aspects of performance where they have achieved excellence. Cultural performers who take on the role of left-wing commentators are likely to attract criticism on specific points, but not on account of their achievements in their own fields". More here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me here. 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.

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

MISSED ANNIVERSARY!

As almost any woman will tell you, most men are very bad at remembering anniversaries, birthdays, etc. Wise women just issue lots of reminders. I am a particularly bad case of poor memory for such things. And I can now prove that it's not ill-intended. I forgot to note the anniversary of this blog when it occurred over a month ago! -- on July 10th. So I have now been blogging for just over two years. It actually feels like I have been blogging forever. And I think I can by now say that there is no chance of me suffering from "burnout", as many bloggers do after a while. I am quite taciturn in everday life but I never find any shortage of things to blog about. I am a sort of Marcel Marceau in reverse. Marceau is famous for not speaking on stage but is/was apparently quite a chatterbox when not on stage.

That reminds me: I started out blogging on a different address from this and I have in the past used quite a number of blogspot sites to put up stuff -- most of which I have now deleted in favour of simple files here or here. I notice however that some kind soul has taken over one of my abandoned blogspot addresses and reposted there some selections from my writings. If he wants to contact me, I might be able to give him something more recent to post.

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

THE TURKISH CONUNDRUM

Hmmm... I have mixed feelings about this one: The Vatican opposes Turkey's accession to the EU on the apparent grounds that it wants to keep Europe Christian. A number of thoughts spring to mind: 1). Europe is now much more post-Christian than Christian so is it not a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? 2). Who cares what the EU does? 3). As the only genuine Islamic democracy, Turkey needs all the encouragement it can get; 4). Turkey would probably be better off out of the highly bureaucratic EU anyway. But on the other hand I can see the Vatican's point that a common culture is important in fostering social harmony -- a point that even Leftist intellectuals such as Kojeve have occasionally perceived. And there is no doubt that Muslim traditions and values are very different from values and traditions formed by Christianity.

More importantly, however, Turkey's accession would mean a virtually uncontrolled flood of Muslims from throughout the Middle East into Europe. If I were a European, I think I would most certainly oppose that. Allowing Muslims who have made a godawful mess of their own countries to import their destructive ways into Europe seems madness to me. And I cannot see that we can expect Turkey to exert any effective border control over its long borders with many other Middle Eastern countries when even the USA cannot control its border with Mexico. So once Turkey was in the EU, half the Middle East would in time end up as EU residents and thus be free to move to any other part of the EU if and when they chose. Lots of lovely Iraqis and Syrians and Iranians for Britain!

And how could Turkey possibly be accepted as a good European citizen when it is already holding down by military force a large part of another European country (Cyprus) that it seized only a few decades ago? It should withdraw its army from Cyprus before discussions even begin!

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

ELSEWHERE

Der Spiegel ("The Mirror") is a major German newsmagazine. It is frantically anti-American. David's Medienkritik shows how utterly deceitful is the account it gives of Larry King's interview with President Bush. David's Medienkritik also has a good laugh about the effects of the planned big withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany.

On 8th., I put up a brief extract from an excellent article by Eric Alan Beltt which contends -- as I do -- that Leftism is a psychological state rather than any coherent political philosophy or set of ideas. The article was originally published on his blog and received a lot of comments. His answers to the comments make a very useful extension to the original article and are well worth reading. See here.

Political pretenders: "Sometimes little things can tell you about big things. While Sen. John Kerry and his running-mate Sen. John Edwards were recently photographed at lunchtime at Wendy's, to show what regular guys they are, their real lunch was from a local yacht club, which is more their speed in real life. There is nothing wrong with eating lunch from or at a yacht club. What is wrong is being phony -- and thinking the American people need to be conned. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president four times while never pretending to be anything other than what he was, a born member of the elite class."

"Racist like me": "One reason for bigotry's maddening intractability is that a determination -- however knee-jerk, superficial, or unthinkingly made -- that something or someone is racist ends the discussion, as happened with my friend. The verdict is 'guilty' and the only punishment is forfeiture of the right to consider yourself a decent human being. Better to be a necrophiliac than an admitted bigot. Yet if we are to evolve on the issue of race, the notion that you, or someone else, is racist ought to function as the beginning of the attainment of full humanity, not the proof that you've relinquished it."

Blogging while black: "Right-of-center black bloggers, in fact, seem to be entering that public eye almost daily. That shouldn't be a surprise, given statistics on growing Internet usage among black Americans, and the revelation that a quarter of young blacks consider themselves conservative .... the Internet is suddenly full of great black writers whose views aren't monolithic -- you'll find almost-daily disagreements about affirmative action, President Bush or the morality of gangsta rap -- but instead offer a vibrant, hip-hop generation alternative to the broken record of the civil-rights establishment."

"The world of celebrity and the world of the Democratic Party are now joined at the hip. They are one. Their interests, presumably, coincide.... Isn't it becoming harder by the day to take the Democrats seriously as the party of the common man and the left-out? Besides these people, the party's primary sources of support have become trial lawyers and Wall Street financiers. It is becoming a party run by a new class of elites who make fast money--$25 million for 30 days work on a movie, millions (even billions) winning lawsuits against doctors or asbestos users, millions to do arithmetic for a business merger. But they're all running against "Halliburton." ... The days when in the same breath you said AFL-CIO, blue-collar and Democrats are gone. The industrial unions, which connected the party to its authentic roots, are downstairs and out of sight of the nouveau arriviste Democrats."

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH leads off with a pretty horrific story today.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me here. 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.

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

STEAM TRAINS AND PYGMIES

Either you "get" steam trains or you don't. I do. So I was mightily pleased yesterday to be sitting on a bench at Kuranda railway station (in the mountains above Cairns) when a great black old steam engine came panting in -- hauling a train of passenger carriages. It has been dragged out of retirement for the tourist trade so that makes me grateful for tourists. Stream engines don't handle inclines well, however, so the trip from Cairns to Kuranda takes twice as long as if the train were hauled by a modern diesel-electric. Anyway, it really choked me up as it slowly pulled out again amid much steam and panting. It was magnificent. Steam buffs would understand.

An historical interest of Kuranda that is now almost completely unknown to almost anybody -- and which is certainly not mentioned to the tourists -- is that the last survivors of Australia's pygmy race were found in the jungles around there. There are still quite a few striking photos of them from around a century ago, but intermarriage between them and other blacks since then has eliminated any obviously distinct modern population of them. Yet 99.9% of Australians would think that there has only ever been one indigenous race on the Australian mainland. The existence of the pygmies used to be mentioned in the history textbooks but is now almost nowhere to be found. Why? Because the indigenous Australian blacks (Aborigines) that we know today appear to be mainly the descendants of a later wave (or waves) of immigration into Australia -- which means that they are not truly the first "owners" of the country. They are just as much invaders as the whites. And they did a pretty good genocide job on the pygmies -- so, as in Africa, the pygmies survived only in the deep jungle. And that TOTALLY undermines the Leftist guilt industry which says that whites as invaders owe the Aborigines something for being the original inhabitants here. More woes for Australia's Leftist historians. And, yes, it IS the wicked Windschuttle who has shown their deceptions up in this matter as in others.

So what did I see in Kuranda yesterday? I saw only about a dozen Aborigines there but two were remarkably short. Isn't that surprising?

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

ELSEWHERE

Proof here that it is John Kerry who is the latter-day Benedict Arnold.

John Kerry's ancestral home in France is rooting for him. How unsurprising.

Jeff Jacoby on there being "too few" minority people in journalism: "The notion that race is a proxy for thought and belief is as odious as the Nuremberg Laws and South Africa's former Racial Classification Law, and has no more business in American journalism than they do. It would be nice to report that Bush and Kerry used their time at the Unity podium to condemn the organization's obsession with skin color, and to remind the journalists in the room that true diversity, the only diversity worth fighting for, is intellectual diversity: the diversity of minds.... What the convention should have been told is that it is neither moral nor progressive to view the world through a racial prism. Unity's "journalists of color" should have heard the blunt message that journalism does not need more reporters and editors of color. It doesn't need more white journalists, either. What it needs are men and women of talent and integrity -- adults who have no interest in a "diversity" that is merely skin-deep"

Excellent: "A Hofstra law student has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against the New York Times alleging the publication's use of the slogan, 'All the news that's fit to print' is false advertising and constitutes a deceptive practice. He claims that the Times' use of 'push-polling' is a violation of the FTC Act. Jonathan Stein said he filed the complaint because he believes the NYT has abused its power and abdicated its responsibility to be objective. He told Talon News, 'The New York Times has enormous power to shape public opinion and the FTC must review the paper's claim that it is an objective news source.' He accused the NYT of using 'push-polling' to obtain results that support a particular position or affect public opinion with the wording of the questions."

Random observations has proof that esteemed academic qualifications can go with severe looniness. Lesson: Don't judge people by the worthless bits of paper that most academic credentials have become these days.

"Blithering Bunny" on Australia's "history wars": His post of 4th mocks the responses of Leftist academic historians to the way Keith Windschuttle has shown them up as typical Leftist liars. He notes that Windschuttle "published The Killing of History, a book acclaimed throughout the world, and that he is regarded in America as one of the world's foremost intellectuals of the current time. So Waterhouse is probably right: the Australian historians have no right to treat him as their intellectual equal".

Keith Burgess-Jackson has a post about frugality that I am generally sympathetic to. I lived a life nearly as simple as his when I was young but as soon as I started acquiring wives that quickly came to an end. My using a dialup connection to the internet is only slightly motivated by frugality. What I really like about dialup is its simplicity. You just plug your laptop into anyplace where there is a phone and that's it! The speed I normally get is 52,000 kbs and that is only a problem with graphics-intensive sites -- which I rarely visit.

PID is a lapsed Catholic and has some good comments on my using a Papal encyclical as holiday reading. Excerpt: "Although I can think of alternative holiday reading, I can also think of something much weirder than an atheist studying papal encyclicals on the beach. It would be the Catholic intellectual architects of those same papal encyclicals deriving their social doctrines, not from their own Church's scholastic tradition, which in many ways layed the groundwork for classical economists like Adam Smith, but from the then "new fangled" economic ideas of German historical school, also known as the "intellectual bodyguard of the House of Hohenzollern.".

I have just transferred here a new lot of Chris Brand's exceedingly incorrect postings about the appalling interaction between race and political correctness in Britain. But Chris has in his usual way found a few signs of emerging sanity there. He notes that the Conservatives there are at long last beginning to criticize political correctness and speak up for a saner legal system. There is also an excerpt from what the British Conservative leader said on today's POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. 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.

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

DESERTED BEACHES -- AND PAPAL ENCYCLICALS

I may be wrong but I have the strong impression that the ideal image of a tropical beach that most people have in mind is an image of a deserted beach. "Getting away from it all" largely means freedom from having to deal with other people all the time. Yet, as far as I can see, that does not happen with most tourist destinations. The crowds follow you. Yet in Australia's far North you can find plenty of long, wide, white, tree-lined, sandy beaches with hardly a soul on them for most of the time. That was certainly true yesterday when I looked in at Cowley beach, Kurrimine and Mission beach. And the smaller beaches in between them are normally absolutely deserted. The dream CAN become reality. Australia certainly makes a laugh out of the Greenie idea that earth is "overcrowded".

My vacation reading has been pretty weird. I have just read (well, most of it) the Papal encyclical Centesimus Annus by John Paul II (1991). Have you ever heard of any other atheist who reads Papal encyclicals on his vacations? There was for me one surprising bit in Centesimus Annus. The Pope supports Sabbath observance: "In this regard, one may ask whether existing laws and the practice of industrialized societies effectively ensure in our own day the exercise of this basic right to Sunday rest". I wonder why we never hear of that?

Like the famous encyclical it commemorates (Rerum novarum), however, Centesimus Annus is a thoroughly conservative balancing act. It says Communism is no good but neither is unbridled capitalism. It says there is a right to private property but not an unrestriced right. It says the State should interfere to look after the poor but it should not interfere too much. As I point out elsewhere, conservatives have always undertaken that difficult balancing. Simplistic all-or-nothing theories and systems are only for the ideologues of the Left. Because Centesimus Annus is a balancing act, however, both Left and Right can find bits in it that they like. It does nothing to check the increasingly Leftist nature of the church hierarchy. The hierarchy can use it to defend any degree of Statism except outright Marxism as being for the good of anyone who is at a disadvantage in any way. So I would call Centesimus Annus an unsuccessful balancing act. It is too vague to be useful. At least Rerum novarum took on Marxism at a time when it was a growing threat. I cannot see that Centesimus Annus does anything similarly useful.

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

FROM BROOKES NEWS

John Kerry gets his Vietnam comeuppance from Vietnam Veterans - and a reporter squeals Now that the truth is coming out about John Kerry's Vietnam war record his sycophantic media groupies are losing their grip
The mass media's love affair with the traitor Wilfred Burchett The mass media's favourable treatment of traitors like Wilfred Burchett helps explain its hatred of President Bush
Green economist wrong on globalization and free trade Free trade (aka globalization) always gets a bad press from greenies"
Keynes fails North Korea and Kim Jong-il Last year Kim Jong-il decided to take his cue from Maynard Keynes and attempted to inject some life into what is jokingly called the North Korean economy
The Japanese economy: A lesson for the US economy? Some commentators thought there was an ominous parallel between the US economy and the state of the Japanese economy in the late '80s
Oil: Where does it come from? How, one may ask, can coal arise in one place and petroleum in another?

Details here

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

ELSEWHERE

Kerry caught in a lie: "I was startled to read the Aug. 10 issue of the editorial page of The Washington Times concerning the assertion attributed to Sen. John Kerry that he had spent Christmas 1968 aboard his swift boat some five miles inside Cambodia and had been shot at by our Vietnamese allies, as well as the Khmer Rouge.... concerning the assertion that Mr. Kerry was shot at by the Khmer Rouge during his Christmas 1968 visit to Cambodia, it should be noted that the Khmer Rouge didn't take the field until the Easter Offensive of 1972".

Kerry has of course now backtracked about what he originally claimed was a "searing memoy" of his time in Cambodia. Are we seeing early-onset Alzheimer's here? Will his memories of routines abuses conducted by American troops in Vietnam also now be withdrawn? But that would be too decent, I think.

GWB good on John Kerry's Iraq policy: "Now, almost two years after he voted for the war in Iraq, and almost 220 days after switching positions to declare himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance," Bush said. "After months of questioning my motives and even my credibility, Sen. Kerry now agrees with me." Bush added sarcastically that Kerry still had time to change his position: "There are still 84 days left in the campaign.""

One hundred percenter has a John Kerry Christmas poem that is very much to the point.

Abortion horrifies me but I agree with this: "Britain granted its first license for human cloning yesterday, joining South Korea on the leading edge of stem-cell research, which is restricted by the Bush administration but which many scientists think might lead to new treatments for a range of diseases."

Eugene Rants is getting pretty enraged at some Leftist distortions about the elderly and about health care.

Diary of an anti-Chomsky-ite is worth a look if you have not seen it already. He posts fairly often.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with informative links to a whole host of varied bologospherical reading.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. 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.

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

CLINTON TOO!

Well bugger me! I rarely use crude language but this is an occasion for it: Bill Clinton is here in Far North Queensland at the same time as I am. I guess his taste in vacation spots is better than his taste in wives. He has been here before so he knew where he was going when he decided to come here for a vacation. I gather he is here for a few days at least. I saw an all-black Learjet on the tarmac as I flew into Cairns International Airport but now I know whom it delivered here. I hope that is all I see of Mr Amorality.

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

ETTY BAY

Thanks to my trusty IBM Thinkpad, I am writing this whilst leaning up against a rock and sitting on the beach at tropical Etty Bay. Overhead is a tangle of jungle trees giving me shade. Ahead of me is an expanse of fine white sand with tree-covered hills in the background that come right down to the beach. Although it is midwinter here, the temperature is balmy and I am wearing only a shirt and shorts. There's only about eight other people in sight. It is the beach to which I used to come for outings when I was a child. I know of no other beach where the jungle comes right down to the sand -- though I guess there must be others. It is of course well off the tourist map and long may it remain so. There is a small caravan park here but not much else. It is rimmed in by hills so there is really no scope for any building here. Just a tiny patch of paradise. And everybody here speaks English! To me it the most beautiful place in all the world. The whole point of my coming North on this vacation was that I just had to sit on the beach at Etty Bay once again.

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

ELSEWHERE

This must be giving a lot of Democrats heartburn: "Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said Monday that he would have voted to give the president authorization to go to war in Iraq even knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction. 'Yes, I would have voted for that authority, but I would have used that authority to do things very differently,' Kerry said"

Leftists instinctively unpatriotic: "After the Sept. 11 attacks, I put a small American flag in my front window. Some of my most liberal friends were appalled. The flag conjured up visions of jingoistic, Fox-watching rednecks, they said. Displaying it tagged me as a guns, guts, and God kind of gal, a vengeful Rambo in heels. At the very least, it meant that I was for bombing the daylights out of Afghanistan. No, I protested. The flag is merely a symbol. It can celebrate any aspect of America we choose: freedom of speech, community, separation of church and state. Or just solidarity with the fallen."

Elitist arrogance: "It is no secret that our president is wildly unpopular among Britain's chattering classes, as distinct from its far wiser cab drivers and John, my haircutter. With the notable exception of a few newspapers, the press and the BBC pour out anti-American vitriol that often makes Al Jazeera seem a paragon of objective reporting. The situation is so bad that the joke at No. 10 Downing Street -- 'joke,' as in 'you will laugh so hard that you will cry' -- is that George W. Bush is less popular in certain British circles than Osama bin Laden."

Belmont club on Iraq: "The death of public discourse over the War on Terror was at least partly the result of the self-lobotomization of the Leftist mind. That operation was necessary to prevent an admission of the obvious: the basic Leftist tenets were bankrupt and sustained only by ever more tedious extensions to the original discredited theory; a latter day replay of the downfall of geocentrism which held back the Copernican revolution only by introducing artificial and complicated epicycles."

What a disgrace! "Millions of illegal aliens in the United States would be free from arrest and deportation, have access to tax-deferred savings accounts and Social Security credits, and get unrestricted travel to and from their home countries under President Bush's guest-worker program. According to previously undisclosed details of the president's plan, which some critics have described as a limited amnesty, the proposal offers numerous 'incentives' for the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens to come 'out of the shadows,' Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, the nation's border and transportation security czar, told a Senate panel."

Buchanan on immigration: "An invasion that Congress and the president refuse to repel, in dereliction of their constitutional duty, has put America at risk. And while the GOP, following the Karl Rove script, remains silent, Kerry Democrats try to out-pander Bush Republicans with even more generous offers of amnesty to illegal aliens."

Dick McDonald has recently put up most of a Wall St Journal article about the amusing decline of German socialism. Excerpt: "During May and June of 1984, bumper stickers picturing a smiling sun advocating a 35-hour workweek were everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the name of shorter working hours.... The mandatory reduction in working hours was supposed to miraculously combine the "humanization of the working environment" with a giant job-sharing program. As people worked shorter hours, the theory went, employers would just have to hire more people to pick up the slack.... This summer, the German unions' springtime -- along with the 35-hour workweek -- has come to an abrupt end. But instead of calling for a general strike, the unions gave the expanded working hours their blessing -- and then denied that anything had really changed... It all began when electronics giant Siemens AG reached an agreement with union workers to extend the working time at two of its plants to 40 hours a week"

And France may not be far behind: "Barely 100 days into his tenure at the Finance Ministry, Sarkozy has focused on the most controversial pocketbook issue in French politics: the nation's 35-hour workweek. This revolutionary labor law, passed by the previous Socialist government, went into effect in 2000. It was supposed to be a panacea for the jobless, founded on the peculiarly European notion that if more people work less (but keep the same salaries as when they worked more) lots of good jobs will be created. "Time for me, work for others," was the slogan for this French version of voodoo economics. Of course the measure didn't lower the unemployment rate, now around 10 percent; it just pleased those already on the job. It also hung an economic millstone around the neck of the French state, which has compensated businesses with huge tax breaks to help them adjust. "France will soon dedicate 16 billion euro per year to prevent people from working," Sarkozy told the French financial newspaper Les Echos last month"

Catholic dinosaurs: They still have not caught up with the triumph of capitalism. "Diotallevi and Cipriani interviewed a selection of persons largely representative of the Italian Catholic intelligentsia.... When questioned on politics and economics, a great number of them demonstrated an orientation markedly in favor of state intervention: 44 percent of those interviewed held that the state should provide jobs for everyone; 48 percent held that the labor market should be made more rigid and less flexible; a very great number of them want the state to have control of the most important businesses. And the closer those interviewed are to the heart of Church organizations, the greater is their opposition to economic liberalism. It is the same in the field of health care. Here as well, opposition to the free market increases with the level of education and religious participation of those interviewed..... The political battles for which Italian progressivist Catholics fight also have little or nothing distinctively religious about them. This is true both for interventionism and for the pacifism that opposed the war in Iraq.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me here. 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.

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

TROPICAL VACATION

I have taken a week away from my usual haunts to spend in my ancestral place. All four of my grandparewnts were born and bred in tropical North Queensland and I was too. I am at the moment blogging from Cairns -- the tourist hub of the Far North. I have been to a few tropical tourist destinations in my time -- Fiji, Hawaii, Singapore and Thailand -- and I think North Queensland is as good as or better than any of them. And I do definitely wonder why people go to third-world tropical destinations when they could enjoy every tropical experience in the safety and convenience of a modern Western country like Australia. Because I was born amid magnificent tropical scenery I am very hard to impress when it comes to scenery. I used to think that there was no scenic drive in the world better than the Cairns to Port Douglas road but these days I will concede that a drive through the Western Highlands of Scotland in the summer rivals it.

The Asians have discovered Cairns big time and the Japanese are everywhere. So that parts of Cairns remind me a lot of Asia -- with all the crowded vibrancy that that entails. So if you want to see Asia, come to Cairns! But outside the tourist bazaars, there is no crowding. So forget about tropical islands. Cairns has everything they do. Anyway, for me it is a trip home.

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

ELSEWHERE

Two Americas: "It is hard to argue that Senator Edwards is incorrect. We do live in two Americas. One of the Americas features twenty five thousand dollar a plate fundraisers, the belief that most of this nation's social problems are exacerbated by a lack of enough government. This America believes that while the average taxpayer contributes approximately half of their income in federal, payroll, state, local, property and sales taxes, more is required."

Your new boss? "That was cute when Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry started his acceptance speech by snapping a salute and saying he was 'reporting for duty.' Cute, but not quite truthful. If he becomes president, we will be expected to carry out his commands. It's only in democratic folklore that government is the servant and the people the master."

Kerry's fragile Vietnam myths: "Presidential nominee John Kerry is working overtime to blunt growing criticism of his Vietnam service and simultaneously reassure uncommitted voters that his acts of alleged heroism as a Swift boat officer-over 30 years ago-far outweigh his antiwar history. He has made his medals-a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts-a central focus of his candidacy. He has made a colossal mistake. No surprise, then, that Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, an organization unaffiliated with any political party-whose members were no strangers to Lieutenant Kerry 30 years ago-last week began airing a dramatic, highly effective TV spot that flatly disputes Kerry's claims, and, worse for Kerry, his integrity."

A good summary: "In Kerry's insistence that the commitment of our allies -- British, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Australian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Japanese, Thai, Danish and others -- adds up to a big fat zero in a 'unilateral' American adventure, he has shown himself bereft of all diplomatic smarts. Talk about Ugly American. Only this one speaks perfect French." --Diana West (Link via Prairie Pundit)

Amusing: A Canadian newspaper is criticizing Kerry for not being Leftist enough.

Yuk! The British Conservative party has so lost its balls that it is considering a new name for itself. There are some excellent suggestions for a new name here.

Hopeful policy from the Australian Left: "Labor will reveal a "courageous" tax and welfare policy aiming to break down barriers that discourage people from working and simplifying the welfare system. Party strategists believe the Federal Government's failure to address the high effective tax rates - the disproportionate loss of benefits when extra income is earned - facing people who move from welfare to work has given Labor a political opening.... The policy is expected to "consolidate" myriad welfare payments into a simpler system, reducing distortions that discourage welfare recipients to find work. A senior Labor figure promised the long awaited package would be "courageous"."

An excellent summary of the voucher education record here. Excerpt: "Critics of school choice often argue that private schools have an unfair advantage because, unlike government schools, they can select the "cream of the crop" and expel disruptive students. But St Adalbert's experience has decisively disproved this view.... More than two-thirds of her students have come from families below the poverty line. Yet, thanks to a solid core curriculum, minimal bureaucracy, and disciplined and structured classrooms, St Adalbert's has seen more than 90 per cent of its pupils go on to post-secondary education or to paid jobs."

Sharia law officially sanctioned in Canada: ""It's shocking to see the seeds of an Islamic republic being sown here in Canada," one young woman shouted to vociferous applause at a recent Toronto rally, organized to denounce the practice of sharia in Ontario. "Sharia doesn't work anywhere else in the world. Why does the government believe it will work here?"

In defense of "deadbeat dads": "It is difficult to understand what is accomplished by imprisoning such nonviolent fathers. It is easier to understand what releasing them accomplishes. Quite apart from humanitarian concerns, the correctional system -- especially the prison system -- cannot sustain its current growth rate. The DOJ estimates that in 2001, '2.7% of adults in the U.S. had served time in prison, up from 1.8% in 1991 and 1.3% in 1974.' Now the estimate is 3.2 percent. Even if society could accommodate the soaring rate of imprisonment, the prisons themselves cannot."

More Moore lies: "As a former green beret, who is still involved in that tight-knit community, I was "shocked and awed" when I saw Michael Moore during an interview at the DNC actually say that "Bush did not have Special Forces on the ground in Afghanistan for more than two months after 9-11." That was laughable; it was such a stupid, bold-faced lie. Many, many green berets and ex-green berets know that two A-detachments were on the ground in Afghanistan within forty-eight hours of the 9-11 attacks".

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual big range of good reading.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me here. 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.

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

SOME ECONOMICS

Hong Kong: still on top "Its territory may be small in size, but Hong Kong's achievements are substantial. Hong Kong's gross domestic income per capita was $24,690 in 2002 -- more than that of Canada, France, and Germany. At the heart of Hong Kong's success is its economic system, which for the last three decades was the freest in the world....

"Nothing could raise our standard of living more than freeing the economy from our meddling government. When people are able to live free of government regulation, they prosper -- goods become cheaper, standards of living go up, and individual liberty is expanded."

Specious reasoning: "A recent article in the Wall Street Journal is a perfect example of how bad economic arguments in support of good ends can be easily twisted and used to confuse the general public (Gwendolyn Bounds, 'Argument for minimum-wage boost,' 7/27/04, p. B3). When we engage in poor reasoning and faulty economic logic in support of a noble cause, we can end up doing much more harm than good in the pursuit of liberty and economic freedom."

Apologists for poverty: "People, poor, rich, tall, short, American or South African -- you choose the variety, it will still be true -- are all capable of making better or worse choices. There are a few totally incapacitated ones of whom this is not the case, but the bulk of us are moral agents. But that is exactly what many on the political left deny to the poor. They attack their dignity by declaring them helpless, inept, in constant need of meddlesome intruders and the paternalist state."

A good quote from Henry George: "The aim of protection is to diminish imports, never to diminish exports. On the contrary, the protectionist habit is to regard exports with favor, and to consider the country which exports most and imports least as doing the most profitable trade. When exports exceed imports there is said to be a favorable balance of trade. When imports exceed exports there is said to be an unfavorable balance of trade. In accordance with this idea all protectionist countries afford every facility for sending things away and fine men for bringing things in. If the things which we thus try to send away and prevent coming in were pests and vermin -things of which all men want as little as possible -this policy would conform to reason"

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

ELSEWHERE

Australia's Leftist historians have now become a laughing-stock: "As the elite of the nation's academic historians met in the stately rooms of the Newcastle Town Hall, fear and loathing lurked the corridors. The Australian Historical Association spent virtually an entire day trying to work out strategies to deal with the menace. Would there be safety in numbers if academics stood together? What should be done when the terror struck again? How could anyone survive when the mass media was in on the conspiracy? Over 18 months after Keith Windschuttle published his book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, the academic world is still anguishing over its impact. It is terrified of what he will do next. Windschuttle struck at the heart of the accepted view of Australian colonial history in the past 30 years - that the settler society had engaged in a pattern of conquest, dispossession and killing of the indigenous inhabitants. The facts, he said, did not stack up".

Supreme Court not supreme: "In 1985, Edwin Meese, President Reagan's attorney general, created a furor when he attacked judicial supremacy. He argued that the executive and the legislative branches of government-- not just the judicial one-- had an obligation to interpret the Constitution. Supreme Court rulings may be final in a given case, he granted, but they could not settle the meaning of the Constitution, which remains independent of any one interpretation. Thus the president and members of Congress were free to reject court-fabricated rules, such as the "right" to an abortion.... Now, nearly 20 years later, Larry Kramer, dean of the Stanford Law School and a member of what he himself calls "the liberal academy," argues that Mr. Meese was right all along."

America's immigration control farce again: "Once we connect these dots, it becomes obvious that the presence of thousands of Arab terrorists in two separate areas of South America and the illegal entry of hundreds of Arabs via the Mexican border portend massive terror assaults against American and other targets in South America and within this nation."

The terrorism/poverty connection is Leftist bunk: "Reducing poverty in the Third World is a moral as well as a political and economic imperative, but to expect from it a decisive change in the foreseeable future as far as terrorism is concerned is unrealistic, to say the least. It ignores both the causes of backwardness and poverty and the motives for terrorism".

The Leftist "food desert" theory (Yes. That's desert, not dessert): "As one who in his professional life has heard numerous complaints about the alleged "oppression" that is created by the presence of a Wal-Mart or some other large chain store, it is interesting to see how the academic left shifts gears and now blames these same retailers for not having enough stores in existence. Social activists have worked overtime to keep the Wal-Marts and Safeways from opening in rural and urban areas; now we see that the real problem, according to activists, is that many rural and urban people do not have access to the inexpensive food that these markets sell."

Conservatives anonymous has a good brief post on why the American revolution was a conservative one. I agree. The idea that conservatives can also be revolutionaries sure must upset the simple minds of those on the Left (like these supposedly educated galoots) who think that conservatism means kneejerk support for the status quo. (I reply at length to the supposedly educated galoots here).

I have just put up an amusing chapter from my 1974 book on conservatism. It describes a group of weirdos who have not changed much since the chapter was written. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. 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.

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

IRAQ IN RETROSPECT

I have recently been alerted to a couple of older posts by "Godless" of "Gene Expression" (see here and here) that provide an interesting retrospective on the reasons for the Iraq war. The fact that Saddam was twice previously well on the way to acquiring nukes certainly makes the suspicion that he might have had them or nearly have had them in 2003 eminently reasonable. Taking a risk on him not having them would have been crazy -- whether you were a neocon or just a traditional old cautious conservative. We were lucky that Saddam was just bluffing and did not, in fact, have anything much. He would probably have used it otherwise. He had used both missiles and poison gas on previous occasions.

Under the heading "Camelot Texas-style", a post on PID dated August 8th (permalinks bloggered) is also of interest. He looks at the Leftist view that the Bush administration was the victim of "groupthink" in its pre-invasion acceptance of allegedly faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weaponry. He ends up however with the excellent point that many key jobs in the Bush administration were Clinton holdovers so the idea of an inward-looking, one-eyed, conformist group of Bush yes-men mulling over policy pays scant regard to the evidence. And the argument also makes the assumption that GWB & Co. believed all the intelligence they were given. That is an unnecessary assumption. As mentioned above, the fact is that no responsible Commander in Chief could have afforded to DIS-believe the intelligence coming in. Even if GWB and his advisors doubted the assessments they were given -- and I give ANY politician credit for tons of cynicism -- they could not afford to take the risk of standing idly by. Saddam's play-acting with the weapons inspectors had lots of people other than GWB (including many prominent Democrats) convinced that he had serious stuff to hide so any risk of such stuff falling into the hands of terrorists had to be prevented by any means available.

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

ELSEWHERE

PID (post of August 4th.) also deploys his characteristic skepticism against the Australia/U.S. Free Trade Agreement. He rightly points out that it is heavily hedged about with restrictions and regulations so is far from allowing real free trade. He then exercises his skepticism by questioning whether the agreement has any net benefits at all. My brand of skepticism in this case is to say that we will have to wait and see. Both governments obviously see advantages for themselves in it and since trade is not a zero-sum game that is entirely possible. PID points out that NAFTA was hedged about with a maze of restrictions and regulations too and I don't think anyone now doubts that NAFTA did a lot of good so I think the bets are in favour of the Australia/U.S. agreement. But totally free trade would be infinitely more beneficial, of course.

News just in: "Congress considers new military medal to recognize John Kerry's war wounds. The new medal will be called the "Purple Owie". It will be authorized for wearing directly over the wound, and after use, will be rolled up and thrown over the nearest fence....... "Who looks like a sissy over 3 little scratches?" Hint: has 3 purple hearts in 4 months but never spent a day in the hospital."

Promise anything! "In a startling reversal of the usual party roles, John Kerry is staking his White House claim as a defender of "fiscal discipline" to counteract a spendthrift Republican Administration. It's all the more startling because his publicly announced proposals would actually increase the deficit.... According to last month's estimate from the National Taxpayers Union, Senator Kerry is promising to increase net spending by $226 billion in the first year... Even overlooking these flaws, how can Mr. Kerry blow out the budget so badly? It's not hard if you promise to be all things to all people"

"But the lack of political diversity in Washington newsrooms is even worse. According to an informal survey conducted by New York Times columnist John Tierney, supporters of John Kerry outnumber supporters of George Bush by 12-to-1 among the nation's capital reporters. If you do the math, that means that only eight percent of America's elite press supports the president, 42 percent less than the 50 percent of Americans who say they'd vote for Bush. It's a disparity that deserves attention".

V.D. Hanson on the infantile nature of the Left: "In a word, we have devolved into an infantile society in which our technological successes have wrongly suggested that we can alter the nature of man to our whims and pleasures - just like a child who expects instant gratification from his parents. In a culture where affluence and leisure are seen as birthrights, war, sacrifice, or even the mental fatigue about worrying over such things wear on us. So we construct, in a deductive and anti-empirical way, a play universe that better suits us".

Randall Parker has a post suggesting that GWB's weak-kneed attitude to illegal immigration is losing him conservative votes without gaining him any Latino votes. Could be. That a country which can put a man on the moon cannot control its immigration intake is pretty ludicrous. I myself think that Hispanics can be perfectly beneficial as immigrants but there should be some selectivity. Not all Hispanics are equal either. The USA should clearly be able to decide WHICH immigrants it lets in. Australia was getting flooded with illegal immigrants too until our conservative government cracked down.

But this does seem to be extraordinarily petty, inhumane and typically bureaucratic: "In a startling twist that reflects a major change in immigration politics, the Department of Homeland Security is ordering the 292 Montserratians to leave [the U.S.] by the end of February - not because it is safe to go home again, but because it is not going to be safe anytime soon." Millions of Mexicans are OK but a couple of hundred people whose island blew up are not!

I have now put online all the chapters that I wrote myself from my 1974 book on conservatism so I am beginning to think of putting online some of the chapters written by others. The first one I have put up is a rather whimsical article by an American journalist on why constitutional monarchy is the best form of government. See here.

I have just put up on POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH a particularly gross case of Swedish human rights abuse in the name of political correctness.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. 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.

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

GUN WATCH

As regular readers of this blog will mostly have noted by now, I have recently started a fourth blog -- called GUN WATCH. I thought I should explain such a major eccentricity. I think only Randall Parker rivals me for the number of active blogs he has.

I am actually not greatly interested in guns (though I am a reasonable shot and enjoyed the weapons-training in the Army). My brother Christopher is gun enthusiast enough for both of us. But what is happening in Britain does give cause for alarm to anyone in any place where crime is common. People there have now been totally disarmed and have no effective defence against violent criminals at all. And just about all that the British police do about it -- according to one who should know -- is "take statements and fill in forms in the Police Station". And gun crime has risen greatly in Britain since the post-Dunblane restrictions on gun ownership -- exactly the opposite of what the law was supposed to achieve. And the U.S. Left is always threatening and sometimes defeats the constitutional protections on gun ownership that Americans are so fortunate to have. So I have decided to bring together in one place the various gun-related stories that come my way. My brother Christopher and his local gun-owner friends will also be sending me stuff for posting. I already have a fair bit lined up so there is no doubt that I will be posting daily on the subject.

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

ELSEWHERE

Sad that the limited degree of capitalism in Vietnam today does not go with any political freedom. The Vietnamese "Communists" were from their early days Fascists rather than true Communists in that a large part of their appeal was nationalistic rather than socialist. And limited capitalism under tight political control was of course also the economic recipe for Mussolini's Italian Fascism and Hitler's Nazism. So the Fascist nature of Vietnamese "Communism" is now more evident than ever. The 20th century "big lie" that Leftist intellectuals foisted on the world -- that Fascism was Rightist -- might thus have had big consequences. Would the Leftists of the 60s have been so keen to support a Vietnam that was generally identified as Fascist rather than Communist? Given their often-proclaimed anti-Fascism, it should have embarrassed them a bit at least. But, on the other hand, they pulled out all stops to support the Fascist Saddam Hussein recently so perhaps a correct identification of the Vietnam regime would not for a moment have held up their unprincipled contrarianism. More on the definition of Fascism here

An interesting example here of how Leftists don't let reality get in the way of their stream of abuse or their anti-Americanism. The author says that 2004 has been the worst year ever to be an American. Why? The only substantial reason he seems to give is that America has lost less than 1,000 troops in Iraq during it's presence there and some soldiers have treated terrorist prisoners mockingly. How naughty of them! And in lots of America's past wars, America lost many more than 1,000 troops in a DAY!

John Kerry's "resume" for his job application as President is a powerful argument for what a sleaze he is.

LOL: A great picture of John Kerry's truck here if you have not seen it by now.

"Does terrorism exist without the media? Does coverage of terrorist acts empower or encourage the people behind them? If terrorism is directed more at the audience than at its victims, shouldn't television journalists stop giving terrorists the forum they covet? ... broadcasters need to start considering new internal guidelines in order to remove hype from terrorism coverage. Excerpts from the execution of Nick Berg, an American entrepreneur in Iraq, were aired repeatedly. When terrorists gave the US 72 hours to comply with their demands before executing American contractor Paul Johnson, the cable networks breathlessly ticked down the time remaining. Network anchors lament global terrorism even as they become complicit partners".

Rather sad that it takes a philosopher to speak such common-sense as this: "If you want me to treat you as an individual, rather than as a mere member of some group, then you should treat yourself as an individual and forego attempts to derive social advantage from group-membership. Don't try to have it both ways. In particular, if you want me to judge you by the content of your character rather than the color of your skin, don't try to secure benefits from your possession of a certain skin-color." But it's still too complex for the simplistic minds of Leftists.

Leftist racism? "After a 30-year career at National Public Radio, Bob Edwards found himself sacked as host of its syndicated news show "Morning Edition." In an interview with Talkers Magazine, Mr. Edwards gave a surprising answer when asked what kind of people listen to NPR. "Bright people," he replied. "People of all economic strata. It's a whiter audience than we would like and we're trying to fix that." Now substitute "GOP Chairman Ed Gillespie" for Bob Edwards and "Republican Party" for National Public Radio and think what the reaction would be to a statement that could be read to imply that white people are somehow brighter." Leftists can see the obvious about average black IQ as well as anybody can but it is only occasionally that they let it slip out.

I have just put online (see here or here) the last chapter of my 1974 book on conservatism. The topic of the chapter -- an evaluation of the 1974 Australian Federal election -- must seem boring to all but the most dedicated political scientists but in fact a number of features of that election continue today. The government that won that election -- the Whitlam Labor government -- is generally remembered as the most Leftist Australian government of the last 50 years but even it did a lot to introduce free-market reforms. And in the absence of an Australian Reagan or Thatcher it has in fact been Labor governments generally who have done most to open up the Australian economy to market forces. What that all means is that there is a broadly conservative consensus in Australian politics (though a small loony Left exists as well of course) with the two major parties differing only on relatively minor details. The current Kerry/Bush contest in the USA is also characterized by very small differences in official policy but that seems to have been arrived at quite artificially -- by suppressing all that Kerry and his supporters have previously been known to stand for. By contrast, the market-oriented reforms instituted by various Australian Labor governments were not the subject of any election competition at all before they were introduced. They clearly arose out of a genuine understanding that they were good for Australia. The only postwar Australian government to use troops to crush a strike (in 1949) was also a Labor government.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. 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.

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

SOME RECENT GOOD EMAILS FROM READERS

"When my younger sister died at 59, and when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, I had new cause to curse junk science. If the money spent "proving" that more substances "cause" cancer had gone, instead, to treatment research, we would probably have a combination of earlier diagnostics and medication that would relegate cancer to being just bothersome. And I curse Carl Sagan because he went to the Dark Side of the scientific lie for a good cause. Atmospheric scientists twisted by the "Nuclear Winter" theories of the Cold War got the alarmist habit and so easily went into the new ice-age and global warming scenarios to shake loose grant money."

"As an architectural project manager, I face the silliness of committees and regulators daily. It is a silliness which goes beyond misguided good intentions. It stifles progress, costs clients inordinately, and quite frequently scares them out of building the housing and other facilities that people need and want to make their lives better. No tax-credit, warm-fuzzy, or "affordable housing incentive" could ever make up for the meddling by these people who have no care about, or personal stake in, what the people standing in front of them say they need. After all, what sort of incentive is a tax-credit other than a little *less* extortion?"

In response to my post about low Leftist IQ: "Just look to Hollywood to see Low IQ leftists. It doesn't take much in the way of brains to read a script created by someone else (the real brains in Hollywood are the producers and writers, not the actors). For example - many don't believe Sean Penn should get an Academy Award for playing himself; likewise for Jack Nicholson."

A bit of interesting gossip about the authors of David's Medienkritik: "David Kaspar is the German half of the dynamic duo and enlisted American Ray D. to help him with translation. Ray has Lived in Nuremberg for five years. When he moved there he didn't pay much attention to politics, but the distortions and public pandering of the press drove him mad with anger. He reads and watches the media to write about it, but often finds that he can't because it's SO bad that it makes him physically ill".

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

ELSEWHERE

"Liberal" psychology: "Liberalism isn't a political ideology; it's a psychology - the psychology of self-satisfaction to be precise. A liberal (or a leftist; I use the terms interchangeably), is a person who only cares about politics to the extent that doing so makes him or her feel good, or avoid feeling bad, due both to external and internal factors. Their motivations can include things like a desire to feel intelligent, moral, noble, or unique, as well as a desire for peer acceptance or reverence, and aversion to being ostracized, among many other things. Now, before I go any further, I have to draw a distinction between liberals and the people who agree with them. Liberals, the people I'm referring to throughout, are the activists and ideologues; the people who truly believe in their leftist ideas and who fight for them.... Liberalism isn't a political ideology. The only common bond that truly holds liberal ideas together is their straight-forward simplicity (pass a law, raise taxes, hand out money, talk it out, etc), which is solely a consequence of the fact that liberals are completely uninterested in real solutions to real problems. It is the political activism itself that interests them, in that it makes them feel good about themselves...."

LOL: Kerry boasted that he and Edwards had better hair so I guess this comment from Dick McDonald about Mrs Kerry is fair: Dick says that her "hair looks as if it was styled by Mixmaster"

"Australians were addicted to welfare and political parties were too scared of voters to ask the junkies to quit, an academic said today. Professor Peter Saunders, from the right wing Centre for Independent Studies, has painted a scathing picture of government welfare policies over recent decades in his new book, Australia's Welfare Habit, being launched in Sydney today. Prof Saunders said Australia's welfare dependency had increased by 500 per cent in four decades. Forty years ago three per cent of working age Australians lived off welfare. Now the figure is 16 per cent".

Sowell: "Santa Monica, California, has decreed a fine of $2,500 a day for not cutting your hedges! .... Santa Monica has long been called "the People's Republic of Santa Monica" for all the far left laws and rhetoric it generates. Like other governments called "people's republic," the last thing they care about is people. The ideology, or even whims, of those in power routinely take away other people's right to live their own lives as they see fit. Santa Monica is not unique. Wherever you get enough far left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs. Too often these selfish ego trips of the left are called idealism, and issues are discussed in terms of the wonderful goals they proclaim -- "social justice," "open space" or "saving" this or that -- rather than in terms of what is actually being done and the costs entailed on others"

"Asylum seekers". Another reason why "refugees" just don't come to Australia any more: "A stateless Palestinian-born man refused political asylum in Australia could continue be held in immigration detention indefinitely, the High Court ruled today. Similarly, an Iraqi national refused an Australian protection visa could continue to be held in a detention centre because there was no reasonable prospect that he could be returned to his preferred destination, Syria. By a 4-3 majority, the High Court ruled that unsuccessful asylum seekers who could not be removed to another country, despite their wish to leave Australia, could continue to be held in immigration detention indefinitely. Both cases involved asylum seekers rejected for Australian protection visas who asked to be returned to the Middle East."

Arafat learnt from Adolf: "Since the onset of Oslo, ten years ago, the PA has established a campaign of vilification against us as part of the effort to delegitimize our presence. All of this is reinforced by a direct connection to Nazi anti-Semitism. Yasser Arafat learned at the feet of his uncle and mentor, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who consorted with the Nazis; Mein Kampf is sold in PA stores today. The PA is the first entity since Nazi Germany to advocate the killing of people simply because they are Jews. Listen to their incitement, especially from their pulpits, and you can hear it -- Allah is pleased when Jews are killed".

Walter Williams: "During the first Reagan administration, I participated in a number of press conferences on either a book or article I'd written or as a panelist in a discussion of White House public policy. On occasion, when the question-and-answer session began, I'd tell the press, 'You can treat me like a white person. Ask hard, penetrating questions.' The remark often brought uncomfortable laughter, but I was dead serious. If there is one general characteristic of white liberals, it's their condescending and demeaning attitude toward blacks."

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. 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.

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

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE .....

An email from a Dutch-speaking reader

"I just acquired - for my collection of war memorabilia - a Nazi publication from around 1942: "What is the European worker struggling for?" (Waarvoor strijdt de Europeesche Arbeider?"). Apparently this was for distribution in Belgium and Holland. Most pages are taken up with pictures of the wonderful benefits of the German welfare state - free medical care, free day care, free summer camps - to show the contrast with the brutish Soviet state in the East, and the heartless Anglo-Saxon capitalist system in the West. The reason why the Soviets would like to conquer Europe is obvious enough, the writer says: to acquire the European standard of living (throughout the text, Germany is barely mentioned but can safely be substituted for "Europe"):

"The question of what the English and the American worker is striving and fighting for is also asked often, mostly in the enemy camp. In the meantime, what he MUST fight and work for has become clear: in order to, by means of conquering Europe and its advanced industry, eliminate a competitor and conquer a new market for the American gigantic (industrial) production. Europe must buy ..."

A clear echo of what we are told about the Halliburton factor in Iraq. This recycled Marxism is followed by a great deal of economic gibberish about how bad it is to buy things from other parts of the world, about the European worker's cherished social security and employment benefits, and, toward the end:

"One more thing the European worker knows: if our continent can maintain itself, i.e. if the East can be controlled and the West can be pushed back inside its own borders, then Europe will be able to continue projecting its ancient, illuminating power, and important parts of neighboring peoples will join our continent and elevate themselves to our level of culture."

Jacques Chirac, eat your heart out: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."

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