Saturday, June 09, 2007

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE THAT GLOBAL WARMING THEORY IS NOT PLAYING WELL WITH THE MASSES

The Anchoress has a story up about a cusomter revolt which took place in a New York book store against global warming b.s. Yeah, it's anecdotal, but one has to wonder if it speaks to a more powerful undercurrent. My hunch it, it does:

Thanks to online shopping, I rarely head into bookstores, but today I needed to buy a gift in a hurry and so I ventured into one - the place was empty and I found what I needed quickly and then browsed a bit. While the temperature outside was only about 73 degrees, the day was humid and the store felt very warm to me. We don’t have central air in the house, just ceiling fans, and they pretty much do the trick, but when I’m shopping, I like to feel cool and comfortable, not oppressed. With no air moving, the store seemed unbearably stuffy, so I said the hell with further shopping and headed to the checkout.

At the checkout counter I found the rest of the shoppers - there were 8-10 of us in all, diverse in age, gender, race, and I’m sure in other ways, and every one of us was trying to get outside and catch a breeze, so some were becoming impatient. While waiting I tied my hair back with a scrunchy and a woman behind me said, “good idea,” and tied hers back, too…no kidding, it was warm.

When I reached the checkout, I asked the cashier if the a/c was broken. “No,” she informed me. “We keep the a/c temperature up because of global warming. Doing our part to save the planet!”

A male voice groused, rather loudly, “Well, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! If you’re running an a/c but still not cooling the building then you’re wasting energy. Either turn it off all together, or turn the temperature down, but don’t run a huge unit without without cooling the building down; that’s like running a car engine in a driveway. This is typical Al Gore liberal nonsense, make everyone suffer the same while they feel noble because they care so much about the environment!”

The other warm woman behind me piped up, “this is freakin’ ridiculous. If I have to come here to sweat, I’ll just stay home and order somethin’ online! I don’t need to be here sweating for the privilege of givin’ you my money!”

The girl behind the counter said, “in third world countries, people don’t have air conditioning!”“America is not a third-world country!” A new voice bellowed. “Not yet, anyway, but if Gore and his rock star friends get their way his way, we will be! Hot stores, sweating! Not them, just us! We’re the ones made uncomfortable! Tell your manager to buy a freaking carbon offset and turn on the a/c!”

America will be a third-world country by next year if Bush has his way and keeps the Mexican border opened,” someone else said.

I collected my change and headed out, in no mood for a hot-angry mob scene. The last thing I heard was the cashier muttering, “Bush - moron!” and the woman saying, “screw this, I don’t need this book, I’m leavin’, and I’ll tell you somethin’ else - George Bush keeps you safe, and he isn’t telling us to sweat without air conditionin’, either!”

Gonna be a long, hot summer, and global warming may indeed have something to do with it…but not as you might think.


YEAR OF THE BITCH




WINKLER GETS AWAY WITH MURDER. (SHE'LL PROBABLY GET THE KIDS, TOO!)







HENIN WINS TWO SETS; (AND GETS THE SAME PRIZE MONEY AS THE EVENTUAL MALE WINNER ON THE MEN'S SIDE - WHO MUST WIN THREE SETS).











NOW, RAGS TO RICHES WINS THE BELMONT - (THE FIRST FILLY SINCE 1905).





IT MUST BE THE YEAR OF THE BITCHES.


CAN HILLARY BE FAR BEHIND!?

A PETITION AGAINST THE UK ACADEMY'S BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

Here's a petition protesting against the UK academic association's boycott of Israel (via One Jerusalem). And, here's an op-ed from the Times of London that agrees that the boycott is wrong.

MORE BOTCHED CARE AND BAD RECORD-KEEPING BY THE NHS

UK INDEPENDENT: NHS rushes to trace women given faulty pregnancy tests
Thousands of women may have been exposed tofaulty pregnancy tests that wrongly indicate they are not having a baby, The Independent has learnt.

Up to 50 hospitals across the country are seeking to trace women who may be unaware they are pregnant because of a faulty batch of the Clearview HGC test.

There are believed to be 44 potentially erroneous tests but tens of thousands of women may have been given the product in the past three months before the problem was spotted.

The NHS is unsure which women received the faulty tests and one general hospital is seeking to alert 1,400 women. Tracing the women is important in case they endanger their baby by drinking heavily or by engaging in other unsuitable activity or behaviour.
THE NHS SUCKS. JUST ASK A BRIT.

IF IT DOESN'T WORK THERE, THEN WHY SHOULD WE DO IT HERE!? IT MAKES NO SENSE. YET EVERY SINGLE DEM CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY WANTS TO "UNIVERSALIZE" HEALTHCARE AT THE TAXPAYERS EXPENSE.

DON'T FALL FOR IT.

HOWARD DEAN: "DEM PREZ WILL END WAR"


UK GUARDIAN/AP:
The high hurdles faced by congressional Democrats in their efforts to end the Iraq war make electing a Democratic president in 2008 the best way to finish the conflict, Democratic party chairman Howard Dean said Saturday.

He noted his party has made little progress toward ending the war, the cause, he said, that returned them to power.

``The American people hired Democrats last November to ensure that we end this war,'' Dean said during the weekly Democratic radio address. ``So let me be clear, we know that if we don't keep our promise, we may find ourselves the minority again.''

Dean put the blame for the lack of progress squarely on the White House and congressional Republicans for blocking his party's attempt at tying war funding to deadlines for troop withdrawals.

``We have to face the reality that Republicans in Congress are standing with President Bush as he stubbornly wields his veto pen,'' Dean charged.

In response, he proposed that the ``one way to truly ensure we end this war'' was to elect a Democrat as president in 2008.
THIS IS TRUE - IF BY "ENDING THE WAR" DEAN MEANS LOSE/SURRENDER/RETREAT.
AS REAGAN AND ORWELL OFTEN SAID, THE SUREST AND SWIFTEST WAY TO END ANY WAR IS TO SURRENDER.
IOW: THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENDING AND WINNING.

AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR "ENDING" THE CURRENT CONFLICT IN IRAQ - AS THE DEMS WOULD "END" IT - WOULD BE HORRIFIC.

AS VDH POINTED OUT YESTERDAY, THE ALLIES TOOK 300,000 CASUALTIES AFTER D-DAY. CASUALTIES AMONG MEN WHO WERE CONSCRIPTS.

WE LOST 400,000 IN WW2 - AT THAT TIME THE US POPULATION WAS HALF WHAT IT IS TODAY.

IN IRAQ, WE HAVE LOST LESS THAN ONE PER CENT - ABOUT .5%. AND EVERY ONE WAS A VOLUNTEER.

WE CAN TAKE IT. WE CAN GUT IT OUT - AND WIN, IF AND ONLY IF THE DEMOCRAT DOVES DON'T FORCE US TO RETREAT AND ABANDON OURTALLIES: THE NASCENT DEMOCRTIC REPUBLIC OF IRAQ.

Marriage as Hate-Speech Case now Filed with US Supreme Court

We read:

"The Pro-Family Law Center has challenged Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and United States District Court rulings finding the terms "marriage," "natural family," and "family values" to be hate-speech. The case involves the threat of termination of employment by the City of Oakland against two of its employees who used such words on an employee bulletin board. ....

In United States District Court, Case No. CV-03-03542-VRW, the California federal courts concluded that the terms "marriage," "natural family," and "family values" could be censored in a municipal workplace as hate-speech and in the interest of "administrative efficiency." (See here). Specifically, the City of Oakland banned the use of these terms on postings made to an open bulletin board provided to employees during the same-sex marriage debate in California during 2002 through 2003.

Source

I mentioned this case previously on March 11th.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

THE GREAT TUG OF WAR

An EXCERPT below from Arnold Kling -- who tries to make sense out of what Leftists appear to believe. That they are motivated by a wish to destroy rather than anything rational, he is courteous enough not to consider. In the full article, however, he heads his essay with a quote that shows that it is hatred that really motivates Leftists
Franklin D. Roosevelt's economic policies during the 1930's were a terrible failure. Why, then, is he so revered in history? I believe that Roosevelt's restrospective halo is derived in part from the fact that he catered to the anti-capitalist trend among intellectuals. This trend long preceded Roosevelt, and it persists to this day. Historians are predominantly anti-capitalist, which inclines them to favor Roosevelt. And if historians do nothing else, they do influence our view of history.

This essay is about the history of polarized intellectual views of capitalism. I make no claims that my thesis is original. On the contrary, it is a central theme in a number of recent books, including Jerry Z. Muller's difficult but highly rewarding treatise The Mind and the Market, Deirdre McCloskey's erudite and offbeat The Bourgeois Virtues, and Brink Lindsey's just-published perspective on capitalists, beatniks and hippies The Age of Abundance.

McCloskey talks about the anti-capitalist "clerisy," as she describes the academics and others who hold the bourgeoisie in contempt. Lindsey describes the way that post-WWII affluence in the United States helped foster widespread cultural experimentation and criticism, with protestors attacking the very capitalist institutions that enabled such experimentation and criticism. Muller offers an intellectual history of the controversy about capitalism. He shows, for example, how Joseph Schumpeter predicted exactly the sort of critical rebellion against capitalism that Lindsey chronicles.

GMU economist Robin Hanson notes that ideological positions tend to come in "clumps." He writes: "The policy world can thought of as consisting of a few Tug-O-War "ropes" set up in this high dimensional policy space. If you want to find a comfortable place in this world, where the people around you are reassured that you are "one of them," you need to continually and clearly telegraph your loyalty by treating each policy issue as another opportunity to find more supporting arguments for your side of the key dimensions. That is, pick a rope and pull on it."......

Jerry Muller points out that anti-capitalism can be traced as far back as the Greeks and to ancient religious tradition. Throughout much of human history, it was natural to see wealth as fixed, so that if one person were particularly wealthy then others would be correspondingly poor. This zero-sum perspective naturally leads merchants and profitable market activity to be viewed with suspicion and hostility.

Modern P's see market activity as positive-sum. In a voluntary trade, both sides are better off. Widespread trade makes many people better off. Competitive innovation is an extreme example of a positive-sum game, leading to very large cumulative improvements in the living standards. Nonetheless, A's still see wealth in zero-sum terms. They see the rich as having too much wealth, and they see a need for redistribution.

For the P's, business success is a good thing. For any one individual, it may represent luck, but overall business success is correlated with the introduction of innovations that improve our lives. For A's business success comes from exploitation. P's look at Wal-Mart and see efficiency and lower prices. A's look at Wal-Mart and see a large, profitable firm hiring employees at low wages and benefits. For the P's, business failure is also a good thing. In order for productivity to improve, obsolete products and inefficient processes need to disappear. A's focus on the adverse consequences of firms going out of business.

Robin Hanson is pessimistic that differences such as those that exist between P's and A's will be resolved through reasoned argument. People have their identities wrapped up in their particular sides of the tug-of-war. See my essay on trust cues. Jerry Muller reminds us that over one hundred years ago, Vilfredo Pareto was equally pessimistic. In his chapter on Joseph Schumpeter, Muller writes:

Pareto's 1901 essay "The Rise and Fall of Elites," conveys two themes to which Schumpeter would return time and time again: the inevitability of elites, and the importance of nonrational and nonlogical drives in explaining social action. Pareto suggested that the victory of socialism was "most probable and almost inevitable." Yet, he predicted...the reality of elites would not change. It was almost impossible to convince socialists of the fallacy of their doctrine, Pareto asserted, since they were enthusiasts of a substitute religion. In such circumstances, arguments are invented to justify actions that were arrived at before the facts were examined, motivated by nonrational drives

Part of the A's outlook is that the economy can no longer improve. As Amity Shlaes and Jerry Muller point out, there was a widespread belief in the 1930's that capitalism had run its course. As Muller puts it:
Analysts of very diverse political hues concluded that the era of dynamic capitalism was over and that the United States and other "mature economies" had entered into a period of long-term economic stagnation. Some argued that there were no new technologies in sight for consumers to buy. Others feared that natural resources were nearing exhaustion, or that slowing population growth translated into a lack of consumer demand. Such assumptions lay behind Roosevelt's 1932 campaign address...
For pro-capitalists, capitalism offers an endless wellspring of renewal. For anti-capitalists, there seems to be an endless wellspring of reasons for capitalism's doom. The tug-of-war between the two sides is likely to be endless.

Friday, June 08, 2007

HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS UNTROUBLED BY DOZENS OF ISRAELI SECRET ARRESTS, PLANNED EXECUTIONS

Just kidding, obviously. They're seemingly untroubled by secret arrests and planned executions, but only because Lebanon is doing it:
A Reuters witness said Lebanese soldiers took about 20 men, blindfolded and handcuffed, away from the southern entrance of the camp. There was no immediate information on their identities.... "The blood of the martyred soldiers is a deposit around the neck of the army which will not rest before the criminals are arrested and taken to justice," army commander General Michel Suleiman said at the wake of a fallen soldier. The authorities charged three more members of Fatah al-Islam with terrorism on Thursday, bringing to 30 the total indicted, judicial sources said. The charges carry the death penalty.
Ah well, there's probably a very subtle distinction that allows Lebanon to get the "not a human rights violation" badge, while Israel is condemned for being twice as careful while doing half of what the LAF is doing. Especially when Israel doesn't even have the death penalty for arrested terrorists. A subtle distinction like - and we're just spitballing here, maybe you can come up with something else - "in Israel, the victims of terrorism are just Jews".

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

FLORIDA DIVESTS FROM IRAN

JPOST/AP:
Florida became the first US state on Friday to outlaw pension fund investments in any companies doing business with Iran's energy sector and with Sudan.

Several other states have divested pension funds with companies doing business in Sudan and some states have general policies against such investments. But none had put the action into law.

"It's not just what's right for Florida. This is what's right for America, it's right for the world," Gov. Charlie Crist said after signing the bill. "It says that Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terror, we will not stand idly by anymore. And to Sudan and the genocide that is occurring there, we will not stand idly by and let that happen anymore, not Florida."
BRAVO! Now what will Spitzer do? What will Schwarzeneggar do? Richardson? Rendell?

The Dems once demanded this response to pariah-hood; remember South Africa?

It's time for the free world to divest from Iran.

SWISS PRESIDENT INVITES IRAN TO OFFER "VARIOUS PERCEPTIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST" AT CONFERENCE

There was a time when Europeans' behavior was limited by a certain sense of taste and an aversion to the unseemly. That time is long past:
Switzerland secretly approached Iran offering to hold a conference regarding "various perceptions of the Holocaust" in Geneva, the Swiss magazine Weltwoche reported earlier this week. The proposal was made via confidential memorandum from Switzerland's President, Micheline Calmy-Rey, to Iranian deputy foreign minister Saaid Jalili, during his visit in Switzerland last December. The Swiss foreign ministry objected to the idea, annulling it. Calmy-Rey's proposal, which would have voiced anew the Iranian doubts over the very existence of the Holocaust, outraged many Jewish organizations, which demanded she apologize.
Charming, no? We wonder if they would have held the conference in a bank. Or maybe some kind of tastefully decorated conference room. "Mme. Calmy-Rey", the Iranian representative would say, "that's a lovely painting. Wherever did Switzerland acquire it?" To which she might respond: "oh that old thing? You know, we have no idea - it just turned up around here in the late 1940s."

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

"Is this what we've become?"
Shepard Smith, Fox News Channel


It's hilarious to watch these news networks with wall-to-wall Paris Hilton coverage while at the same time, the anchors are whining and moaning about it. It's absolutely classic.

Yes, Shep, that is what the MSM has become: The Marie Antoinette Media...having their cake and eating it too.

This video (scroll down) of Shep Smith's coverage over at Hot Air is gonna place in my Top 10 video clips of all time...somewhere around William F. Buckley threatening to beat up Gore Vidal and Arianna Huffington knocking over the microphones to get her picture taken next to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Open Letter to the L.A.Times

By Arlene Peck

Excerpt:

For years, I've been a working member of the press. There was a time when I looked with pride at my life's accomplishments. Of course, those were the days when such men as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Morrow were the role models. In recent years, I've become increasingly alarmed with the trend that I've seen among those who consider themselves 'reporters' as well as those talking heads on the television's nightly news programs We listen to dumbed-down, usually attractive post-puberty 'experts' who can only speak in sound bites before they're interrupted by their co-anchor in the box. They talk about the Middle-East, but I'll bet if you put a map in front of them and asked them where that is, they wouldn't have a clue.

The CEOs of these companies wonder why their newspapers are going out of business. It's simple: it's the same as with the airlines. Lack of service. When the newspapers began to invent the news instead of reporting the news, the public had nowhere to go but to the call in to talk stations where there was at least a chance of hearing the truth.

The worst so-called" journalism" I believe, is practiced by the LA Times. For years, I've held on to my subscription if only because I am a columnist and felt that reading the morning paper was the only way to keep up with what was happening in the world so I might give my opinion on it; which is what a columnist does. A recent edition of the Los Angeles Times was the last straw! That Sunday's front page was covered with a picture of Jerusalem entitled, "The Struggle For Jerusalem." I'm surprised that they didn't use their resident anti -Semite to write the biased column against the Jewish state, but nevertheless it was pretty awful.

I'm not surprised when I see that the sympathetic slant of their series is for "the plight of the poor Palestinians." After all, that's what they do best. Everything, in my opinion, that they write has always been against Israel. For example when they write that Arab families are being "cut off for good from the city of birth" because of the "Israel barrier" which Israel "insists" is aimed at keeping out suicide bombers from entering. The concept that suicide bombers are homicidal mass murderers is foreign to the Times.

Their dumbing-down the issue is working. Israel was forced to build a fence to keep out the murderers that constantly came into Israeli cities to bomb their schools, pizza restaurants, buses and neighborhood markets at will. Prior to the barricade, we were reading in that same biased paper about how many Jews were being killed on an almost daily basis. Of course, why should I be surprised?: This is the same paper that instead of writing about how the open borders from Mexico have turned California into Mexifornia and our cities into places resembling third world countries. This same paper was also writing multi-page series about how the poor illegal immigrant families are being separated and forced to live in poverty. I wish our government had had the foresight that Israel is now showing before our country got so out of hand.

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

In Britain too, Whites must not Use Black Talk

Shades of Imus and his "nappy-headed hos":

"The Commission for Racial Equality commended Channel 4 yesterday for the swift removal of a Big Brother contestant who used a racially offensive term.

Emily Parr, 19, from Bristol, called Charley Uchea, a fellow housemate, a "nigger" during a misguided attempt to adopt urban "street" language.

Producers, under scrutiny after Ofcom's damning verdict over the Celebrity Big Brother racism row, removed Ms Parr within hours of the word being uttered, and said that such behaviour would not be tolerated. Tonight's eviction vote, for which Parr had been nominated, has been suspended.

Ms Parr, a middle-class drama student, was heard to say: "Are you pushing it out, you nigger?" to Ms Uchea while they were dancing in the living room. Ms Uchea and other housemates expressed shock. Ms Parr said that she had not intended to be offensive and said the term was exchanged widely during discussions with her black friends.

Source


(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

SYRIAN ATTITUDES TOWARDS JEWS AND ISRAEL

The JTA was able to send a reporter to Syria recently, where local attitudes towards Jews and Israel seem quite odd. On the one hand, they actually respect the very few Jews left living there, ditto their religion (or so it would seem). On the other hand, their opinions on Israel are more revealingly hostile.
Residents of Aleppo, asked for directions to the Harat al-Yahud, the former Jewish quarter, pointed the way without a hint of hostility. In fact, a sign in Arabic at the entrance to the abandoned Joab Ben Zeruiah synagogue warns against dumping trash "in front of this holy place of worship."

But the attitude changes on Israel.

"Israel is one thing, and Jews are something else,” Mahmoud Sharif, an English-speaking tour guide, told JTA in Aleppo. "We respect the Jewish religion and consider it one of God's religions, but we don't accept Israel."
So he says. The impression one gets from this is that Syrians ostensibly respect Jews/Israelis and their religion, but hate the Israel. But, that all seems to have what to do with taqqiya, and the view that the Jews still left in Syria are dhimmified and cowed enough to not bother about.
Sharif suggested that the Jews left "because Syria wasn't a good country to live in, and because there were more opportunities in other countries."

As to Israel, the 31-year-old college graduate said the problem is not with its people but its government.

“Israel uses heavy weapons against children," said Sharif, who did his army service on Syria's border with the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the Six-Day War of 1967. "They've forced Palestinians from their land. The Palestinians have a miserable life, and many [refugee] families in Syria still think of their villages. If you ask them about Palestine, they will cry."
Sob stories, sob stories and more sob stories, not to mention how the inteviewee invokes the stereotype of Israelis as child-killing savages.
"People here don't like Israel," Sharif said. "They think about this situation every day. It's our daily problem. They think Israel won't last forever."

Asked what it would take to change people's attitudes, Sharif thought for a moment.

"If Israel gave us back the Golan, it would be a good sign they really want peace," he suggested. "[But] whether the government makes peace with Israel or not, the people will not agree. And if they agree, it's because they'll be forced to agree. They hate Israel."
In that case, I'd see no reason for any decent person to have anything to do with Syria. They are indoctrinated to hatred, and until they're willing to reeducate, they're asking for isolation. This also contradicts the earlier claim that the only problem they have is with the Israeli government. It's not just them that they hate. It's the citizenry of Israel as well.

THE BLOODY IMMIGRATION DEBATE

This post is bound to tick some people off but it is where I'm coming from. Here are my bulletin points on immigration:
1) Border Security is the bottom line!

2) I hate to say it but some on our side have become irrational about this issue.

3) I'm glad the current immigration bill was killed!

4) I am for RATIONAL debate on this issue even though its hard to stomach at times.

5) Progress isn't made over night.

Read Peggy Noonan's, Slow Down and Absorb. To read the rest of my thoughts on this, go here!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

H5N1 BIRD FLU HAS MUTATED INTO ONE MORE EASILY COMMUNICATED B2H

The H5N1 bird flu virus in Indonesia may have undergone a mutation that allows it to jump more easily from poultry to humans, the head of the country's commission on bird flu control said on Wednesday.
MORE HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE.

THIS WOULD SEEM TO BE THE FIRST STEP IN ITS EVOLUTION TO BECOMING H2H.

AND A TERRIBLE PANDEMIC.

LE FIGARO'S INTERVIEW WITH SARKOZY


EXCERPT:
What lessons have you learned from your first month at the Elysee [president's office]?

I have tried to use this month so that - if the French people grant me a majority in the National Assembly - my government can set to work immediately after the general election. I was elected on the basis of a strong, consistent blueprint based on frankness and truth. My duty is to implement this blueprint.

I have had occasion to say that I will not allow anyone to distort it, in the economic and tax field.

I want to say equally forcefully, so that everyone fully understands it, that the same will apply to my commitment to an irreproachable Republic and an exemplary democracy.
GOOD TO HEAR AFTER THE MEANDERINGLY DISMAL AND UTTERLY CORRUPT CHIRAC YEARS.

SARKOZY IS EXTRAORDINARY. IF HE SUCCEEDS IN SAVING FRANCE, IT CAN HELP TURNAROUND ALL OF OLD EUROPE. RTWT.

WAITING TIMES FOR TREATMENT IN THE UK'S NHS SUCK

METRO UK:
Less than half of NHS patients are starting treatment within the Government's pledged target of 18 weeks, new figures reveal.

The Government has promised that no patient should wait more than 18 weeks from a GP referral to the start of treatment by the end of 2008.

But only 48 per cent of patients in England are treated within that time – and 12 per cent have to wait more than a year, according to the Department of Health figures yesterday.
YUP:12% WAIT FOR MORE REPEAT MORE THAN A YEAR.

OVER HALF WAIT MORE THAN 3.5 MONTHS.
ONLY 48% GET TREATMENT IN LESS THAN 3 MONTHS.

IF TAX-PAYER FUNDED UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE DOESN'T WORK THERE, THEN WHY DO IT HERE? IT MAKES NO SENSE.

YET THAT'S WHAT THE DEMS WANT TO DO.

DON'T FALL FOR IT. (ADDITIONAL FACTS AND FIGURES HERE FROM THE UK GUARDIAN.)

HISTORY OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S LONG WAR AGAINST THE WEST

Family Security Matters has a four-part exclusive article by Adrian Morgan giving the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and its jihad against the west. Here are the links to the parts below:

Part One.

Part Two.

Part Three.

Part Four.

You'll get to learn how they were founded, who their demonic founder was, how they expanded their murderous activities from Egypt to across the globe, Switzerland being one of their first financial sources, and even about the Brotherhood's sympathies for nazism. Some of the news here, even if it's unsurprising, is still quite chilling and shocking.

BRITISH ANTI-SEMITES POISON ISRAELI FOOD EXPORTS, GET ISRAEL BLAMED

Two days ago Europe was all abuzz about how "dozens in Europe have been poisoned by Israeli-grown basil." Now it turns out that the Salmonella had a little help getting on the food:
Miriam Freund of the Plant Protection and Inspection Services department at the Agriculture Ministry said.. it seemed highly unlikely that the Salmonella originated in Israel. Oded Yaffe of the private agronomy laboratory Shelef said... "The odds that the Salmonella happened to reach three different Israeli farms at the same time are tiny," he added... given Israel's position in Britain these days, a criminal involvement could not be ruled out. "Unfortunately, it appears as if someone just pasted Salmonella on the basil from Israel," he said.
Maybe the British should start boycotting Israeli food exports. Boycotts fix everything. Oh - and Britain's hatred of Israel has in no way reached pathological, self-destructive levels. It's a very calm and level-headed approach to the Jewish State, totally proportional to Israel's behavior and having nothing to do with its existence as a Jewish State.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

WORLD REACTS WITH OUTRAGE AS LEBANON SHELLS PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP FOR FIFTH STRAIGHT DAY

Just kidding, obviously. It's not Israel trying to defend Israeli citizens against openly stated genocidal intentions - an act known in media and diplomatic circles as "disproportionate retaliation" - so they can do whatever they want:
Fierce fighting has engulfed the Nahr al-Bared camp and its outskirts since Friday, when the army launched an offensive to drive the militants from their positions inside the camp. The army stepped up its offensive after the militants, who embrace an al-Qaida-inspired militancy and doctrine, rejected government demands to surrender and vowed to fight to the death. More than 100 people have been reported dead since the fighting first broke out May 20 between the army and Fatah al-Islam. It is the worst internal violence since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Fierce fighting has engulfed the Nahr al-Bared camp and its outskirts since Friday, when the army launched an offensive to drive the militants from their positions inside the camp. The army stepped up its offensive after the militants, who embrace an al-Qaida-inspired militancy and doctrine, rejected government demands to surrender and vowed to fight to the death.
The last time Israel killed 100 people without hysterical cries of massacres and UN resolutions of condemnation was... anyone? Never? 60ish years of nationhood, and Israel has never been allowed to defend itself militarily without having to devote significant time, energy, and money to defending itself diplomatically in international forums. Maybe they should ask Lebanon what the trick is. We suspect it has something to do with "not being Jewish". You know what though? The Bush administration consistently restrained Israel throughout Lebanon II because it didn't want to undermine Lebanon's political stability. Nice to see that's working out so well.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

D-Day 1944 - 2007

Eric at Classical Values expresses my D-Day thoughts better than I ever could. Here is a bit I especially liked:
So, we might be able to avoid another D-Day and we might not be. Either way, I think it's important that we remember.
Short and very sweet. Go read the whole thing.

Changing The Climate

I have a couple of new pieces up on Climate Change. The first deals with the effects of the Sun and the Planets on climate. Climate: The Astrology Model.

The second discusses some people's addiction to Climate Change Disaster Predictions. Climate Change Porn.

Why Jews Should Approve of Antisemitic Speech

Eugene Volokh, who is Jewish, a lawyer and a widely-read conservative blogger, argues that neither Jews nor anyone else should attempt to stop antisemitic speech and holocaust denial.

A major reason he puts forward for that, however, is interesting. He feels that such speech keeps Jew on their toes. It helps them to avoid a false sense of security and helps give Jews some feeling of unity -- something that Jews notoriously lack. There are heaps of anti-Israel Jews, for instance. Also see here.

Volokh's argument in that regard is in fact an old one. I look quickly at the history of the idea concerned as part of my article here. Some Jewish writers even feel that Jews NEED their persecutors -- that it is only persecution that has held Jews together as a group for so many years

I myself think that is a bit extreme but the idea that victims and victimizers do in some cases and in some senses collude is not an unusual one. It is one foundation of the study known as "victimology".

Note that Volokh is NOT condoning actual persecution of Jews -- just antisemitic speech. I am rather pleased that someone is able to make that distinction. Leftists notoriously do not. To them anything from the words "you people" (as Ross Perot found out) to a lynching is all the same -- all "racism"

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

A REFLECTION ON THE STORY THE NYT IGNORED

Excerpt:

This time it was John F. Kennedy International Airport. Nothing new about big-city airports - seven years ago, Los Angeles International Airport was targeted. Nothing new about New York City, either. The World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, and finally destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. The United Nations complex, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the FBI's Lower Manhattan headquarters, the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal - they've all been on the hit list. Big Western cities, in fact, are the hit list. New York, L.A., Chicago, Washington, London, Paris, Madrid . . . on it goes.

And, of course, there is nothing new about the culprit. The story is always the same: radical Islamic terror. The storyline is the same, too. But an element of Western opinion always wants to obscure it, turning a blind eye to the ideology of hate that motivates these would-be murderers. The root-causes crowd has little interest in that root cause. No, it must be poverty (even when the terrorists turn out to be comfortable, well-educated, and fully employed); or the Palestinian issue (even though organizations like al Qaeda have barely mentioned the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and some terror targets, like Bali, had no rational connection to it); or, it goes without saying, George W. Bush and "his" war in Iraq (no matter how many attacks occurred before his presidency).

A growing chorus, weary of the war at home and abroad, some of its voices resistant even to the reality that we are at war, is quick to reject the use of both military force and heightened domestic surveillance. The War on Terror is, they maintain, a war only of ideas.

The enemy's ideas are frightful: for example, its notion that mass murder is a legitimate means of pressing a socio-political agenda. This is not an aberrational belief espoused by a fringe of jihadist operatives. It is mainstream in Islamic countries and disturbingly common among growing Muslim populations in the United States and Europe.....

But even if the grand design was beyond the cell's competence, an attempt could well have killed hundreds of people. As with the recent thwarting of a jihadist plot on Fort Dix, this intended atrocity appears to have been prevented by the cooperation of federal and local law enforcement, who managed to infiltrate the conspiracy with an informant - proving, yet again, that if we are to stop terror attacks rather than react to them, there is no substitute for human intelligence.

The deepest lesson here, though, is that we are at war with an enemy that hates us, that will stop at nothing - even death - to harm us, and that we must understand in order to defeat. That is the first step in the real battle of ideas.

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

JIHADISTS ARRESTED IN EUROPE AND EGYPT

BBC:
Italian police have arrested at least 10 suspected Islamist militants who are believed to be linked to the bombings that rocked Algiers in April.

The suspects, held in Milan, allegedly provided logistical and financial support for the militants in Algeria.

Two blasts killed at least 30 people and injured 160 in Algiers.

A group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat said it carried out the attacks. It later changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. Police said the suspects were also believed to be linked to Islamist activities in Tunisia in January.

The Milan suspects are reported to be Tunisians.
REUTERS:
... British police carried out a further arrest linked to the swoop in Milan. ... British police did not give his nationality but said he was wanted for offences including terrorism and forgery and that the warrant alleged that "between 1997 and 1999 he convinced and organized volunteers to undergo military training in Afghanistan for jihad with the use of false documentation."

The arrests appeared to be the first against the group in Europe since it changed name in January to position itself as the North African arm of Osama bin Laden's network. France's top anti-terrorism investigator, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, told Reuters this week that the former GSPC might now try to expand its network into France, Spain and Italy.

"The GSPC has become, as it were, a sort of regional branch of al Qaeda, its mission being to federate all the radical, Salafist organizations in North Africa -- Moroccan, Libyan and Tunisian -- and, at the same time, to provide logistical support to the Iraqi networks," Bruguiere said.
EGYPT:
Police arrested 105 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group in the past two days, including two candidates competing in upcoming parliamentary elections, the group and police officials said Wednesday.

The arrests were part of an ongoing crackdown that has intensified in the lead up to elections for the upper house of Parliament, known as the Shura Council.

The Brotherhood has announced it has fielded 19 candidates in the June 11 elections.

"We're expecting many more arrests leading up to Monday elections," said the group's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud on Wednesday. "Brotherhood members in prison have exceeded 600," he added.
THE SCOPE OF THE ENEMY'S ACTIVITIES IS ENORMOUS: NOBODY ANYWHERE IN THE WEST, OR ANY NATION ASPIRING TO WESTERN IDEALS IS SAFE.

THE LAW & ORDER THEME AND DOGS: BARKING FOR FRED!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING TOTALLY WEIRD

- or -

WHO LET THE DAWGS OUT!?

WATCH THEM SINGLY OR LISTEN TO THEM ALL TOGETHER!















This too.

I THINK THEY'RE BARKING FOR FRED!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

LATEST POLL: SARKOZY TO WIN HUGE MAJORITY

UK GUARDIAN:
Nicolas Sarkozy is forecast to win a huge majority in forthcoming French parliamentary elections, handing him a free rein for his "economic revolution" in a country he claims is no longer ashamed to be rightwing.

...The poll predicted that pro-Sarkozy MPs would take 42.5% of the French national assembly, with the Socialists and associated parties winning only 29%.

Several forecasts have shown that Mr Sarkozy's majority could end up with 420-460 of the 555 seats in mainland France, with Socialists hanging on to as few as 80.
WITH THIS MAJORITY HE CAN REFORM FRANCE TOUT SUITE. AND THEN HE CAN MOVE ON TO SAVE EUROPE!

UC-IRVINE SCIENTISTS: 20% OF ALL GLOBAL WARMING DUE TO DIRTY SNOW

UPDATE: TAB scooped the entire blogsphere on this story by more than 12 hours.
Both Evil Glenn and Jonah of NRO ripped off this post without a hat-tip. Both were emailed this post last night at 10-ishPM. I can't prove that they used my link, but neither has ever linked to a Webwire story before. I emailed it to several big bloggers in the hope that it would get wider coverage, so I'm glad they posted on it. It would gentlemanly if they gave TAB a hat-tip.
WEBWIRE:

The global warming debate has focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but scientists at UC Irvine have determined that a lesser-known mechanism – dirty snow – can explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases. ...

Dirty snow has had a significant impact on climate warming since the Industrial Revolution. In the past 200 years, the Earth has warmed about .8 degree Celsius. Zender, graduate student Mark Flanner, and their colleagues calculated that dirty snow caused the Earth’s temperature to rise .1 to .15 degree, or up to 19 percent of the total warming.
Er um... Does this mean we should start trading dirty-snow credits and pass dirty snow taxes?

ALSO: If 20% is from dirty snow, I bet that most of the rest is cyclical solar/cosmic ray/cloud related. AND THAT ZERO HAS TO DO WITH CO2.

This news means that we have NO REASON to slow out use of fossil fuels; we merely need CLEANER fuels (with less soot).

It means that taxing CO2 is WORTHLESS - if the point was to slow global warning.

If the point was to shackle industrialization, globalization, and the free market, then by all means Lefties: keep pushing for them. And they will, after all, THAT was always their main goal anyhow.

MORE PROOF PUTIN BEHIND LITVINENKO'S ASSASSINATION

Blair has announced he intends to "talk tough" to Putin regarding the assassination of Litvinenko.

Putin announced the subject is off limits.

Well.... if Litvinenko was really involved in a Polonium smuggling scheme - and died accidentally (as AJ STRATA has ridiculously contended for months), then why wouldn't Putin want to discuss the subject with Blair?

Smuggling Polonium for a nuke or a dirty bomb to be given to Chechens to use against Russia seems to me to be a topic which Putin would be VERY interested in discussing.

But he isn't. Because he KNOWS who did it. He sees the culprit every time he looks in the mirror.

When one also considers that Lugovoi returned to Putin's Russia for treatment, and has been vigorously defended by Putin's FM, one can ONLY conclude it was a Putin-sponsored hit.

Therefore, Putin should be treated with the same respect we give Assad - another "assassinator." Which is to say with NO RESPECT.

We ought to insist on a UNSC sponsored International Tribunal to investigate the Litvinenko assassination and to indict and convict Putin.

WHOSE SIDE ARE THE DEMOCRATS ON, OURS OR THEIRS?

THEIRS.

NYTIMES:
A day after two military judges ruled against the Bush administration’s system for trying terrorism detainees, Democrats seized on the rulings on Tuesday as evidence that Congress should restore the right of those held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detentions.

Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the majority leader, said he would be willing to bring such legislation to the floor. The Senate Judiciary Committee is preparing to approve such a plan on Thursday.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the rulings on Monday in two cases added urgency to the push to restore detainees’ right to file habeas corpus suits. Congress eliminated that right last year while redesigning the military tribunals after the Supreme Court struck down the first plan.
THE DEMS WANT THE ENEMY TO HAVE MORE RIGHTS, AND THEREBY MAKE IT HARDER FOR US TO KEEP THEM INCARCERATED.

THEY DO THIS DESPITE THE FACT THAT DOZENS WHO HAVE BEEN RELEASED FRO GITMO HAVE GONE BACK TO JIHADISM AND TERRORISM AND ATTACKED OUR TROOPS AND THE CITIZENS OF OUR ALLIES.

THIS EFFORT OF THE DEM LEADERSHIP PROVES ONCE AGAIN THAT THIS "ANTI-WAR" CROWD ARE NOT FOR PEACE; THEY'RE ON THE OTHER SIDE.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS CALLED IT FIRST: LYNNE CHENEY ON SHORT LIST TO REPLACE THOMAS

WE POSTED IT FIRST HERE - ON MONDAY JUNE 4TH.
BEFORE ANYONE ELSE - ANYWHERE.

NOW THE POLITICO SAYS IT JUST MIGHT HAPPEN.

PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT TAB IS THE PLACE TO BE FOR THE BEST IN ORIGINAL NEWS ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY.

FOUR IN JORDAN CHARGED WITH ARMS SMUGGLING TO ISRAEL

In Jordan, four men have been charged with arms and drug smuggling:
Jordan's military prosecutors charged four men with smuggling heroin and weapons into Israel and the West Bank across the Dead Sea for trade purposes, according to an indictment made available Wednesday.

Two of the suspects, identified as Yousef M., 23, and Ahmed S., 23, are in police custody. Two others, identified as Khaled Rashaydeh and his brother Ali - both Palestinian - are at large and are to be tried in absentia unless they surrender to police within ten days, the document said.

According to the charges, Yousef and Ahmed had agreed to hide the drugs and weapons on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea under a tree. The cargo was loaded on a boat which Khaled was to take to the Israeli side.

But an army patrol in the area uncovered the boat with part of the shipment as Khaled fled. The army confiscated the drugs, including more than four kilograms of heroin, several machine guns and ammunition. Yousef was arrested at the scene while the third suspect, Ahmed, was taken into custody in December.

The four men were charged with four counts, including exporting heroin for trade purposes and exporting weapons and ammunition without legal authorization, the court document said.
I'm glad Jordan's authorities are showing responsibility here.

THE DEMOCRACY AND SECURITY CONFERENCE

Folks, I know that for those of us on the conservative/libertarian Right these are times that try men's souls. But there are still people in this world that care, that are fighting the good fight for the values that we hold dear.

In Prague, the Democracy and Security Conference is underway featuring a who's who of totalitarian dissidents: Jose Maria Aznar, Vaclav Havel, Natan Sharansky, and Garri Kasparov. Not surprisingly, it's getting very little attention in the MSM, but Gateway Pundit is there and he's all over the story...with pictures.

NEO-NAZI "PRANKSTERS" IN NJ COMMIT BIZARRE OFFENSE

Seldom have I ever read news as disgusting as this:
A four-foot swastika formed by 17 neatly arranged volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica was found in the parking lot of Bnai Keshet, the Reconstructionist synagogue in Montclair. [...]

Fred Glicksman, the synagogue's administrator, surmised that the incident occurred after 11 o'clock Sunday night, when zoning laws require that the synagogue turn off the lights that illuminate the parking lot.
That could explain how the diablos were able to go about doing the filthy deed without being noticed at ease. I think something's going to have to be done about these stupid "zoning laws", which may hinder the ability to spot criminals at work at ease.

This incident is truly disgusting.

Hooray! Long Live the Off Switch and the Channel Changer

Excerpt:

"If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can blurt out vulgar language, then the government cannot punish broadcast television stations for broadcasting the same words in similarly fleeting contexts.

That, in essence, was the decision on Monday, when a federal appeals panel struck down the government policy that allows stations and networks to be fined if they broadcast shows containing obscene language.

Although the case was primarily concerned with what is known as "fleeting expletives," or blurted obscenities, on television, both network executives and top officials at the Federal Communications Commission said the opinion could gut the ability of the commission to regulate any speech on television or radio.

Source

If there really is a significant market for very prim TV, some channel will see an opportunity in that and provide it. There is no reasonable justification for a minority of easily shockable people to impose their preferences on the rest of the country. Let the market decide what is available.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Idiot compassion

Excerpt:

The term "bleeding-heart liberal" has been bandied about for years, in an effort to illustrate the faux or at least hyperbolic sense of compassion attributed to those on the left. The lefties in America and Europe would like to be known as those who care, unless you happen to be a Bible-following Christian, a conservative or a fetus....

The most intriguing and brilliant analyst of the world history of spiritual practice and the melding of East and West today is undoubtedly Ken Wilber. Wilber`s insight into Buddhism in general and compassion in particular is unmatched in the West. ( Read A Brief History of Everything, for instance.) In One Taste, Wilber responds to a student's question about compassion with an illuminating view:

"[Most] confusion... in spiritual circles ....comes from confusing compassion with idiot compassion."

This term was first used by Chogyam Trungpa, a Tibetan Rinpoche who helped bring Buddhism to the West in the 70`s. Wilber continues:

"Idiot compassion" thinks it is being kind, but it's really being cruel. If you have an alcoholic friend and you know that one more drink might kill him, and yet he begs you for a drink, does real compassion say that you should give it to him? After all, to be kind you should give him what he wants, right? Giving him the drink would therefore show compassion, yes? No. Absolutely not.

"Real compassion includes wisdom and so it makes judgments of care and concern; it says some things are good, and some things are bad, and I will choose to act only on those things that are informed by wisdom and care."


Of course, here Wilber illuminates the missing ingredient in liberal "compassion." The world, viewed through the liberal's gray colored, politically-correct glasses, makes no discerning judgments, or at least incorrect ones. Hence, we get addle-brained protesters picketing to save the lives of serial killers on death row or human shields willing to give up their lives to protect suicide bomber cults and Islamic terrorists. Since all killing is bad, it must be bad to kill Islamic terrorists or convicted murderers. This idiot view, foregoes the greater good and lapses into solipsism.

The biographies of the Buddha reveal that in one of his early incarnations, he met a murderer of 1000's of men. Acting correctly and with compassion for all sentient beings, the Buddha's incarnation killed the murderer to prevent additional suffering. That is true compassion!

The "compassionate" left would rather have us believe that the detainees at Guantanamo, the murderers and rapists in our prisons, the violent Palestinians and other Islamo-fascists are the rightful and primary objects of our care and concern..... It's time we revealed this sham pretension of compassion for what it is: a reckless disregard for reason and judgment, disguised in the touchy-feely cover of political correctness. When you spot liberals pretending compassion under the guise of idiot compassion, out them!

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF LEFTIST SURREALITY

A LIST OF A FEW OF THE MOST COMMON LEFTIST LIES, ILLUSIONS, AND DISTORTIONS:

  • LIBBY LEAKED
  • BUSH TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH CREATED LARGEST DEFICIT EVER WHICH IS RUINING ECONOMY
  • WE'VE LOST IRAQ
  • SADDAM HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH JIHADO-TERRORISM
  • GORE WON
  • CAPPING PROFITS AND EXECUTIVE PAY AND RAISING TAXES ON THE WEALTHY AND REDISTRIBUTING IT WILL HELP THE ECONOMY
  • OBAMA AND EDWARDS ARE QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT
  • CLARENCE THOMAS IS DUMB
  • PUTIN IS RIGHT: NMD IS DESTABILIZING
  • WE CAN AFFORD TO NATIONALIZE 15% OF OUR ECONOMY (HEALTHCARE) - TURNING IT INTO A FEDERAL ENTITLEMENT FOR EVERYONE
  • THE NASDAQ/NEW ECONOMY BUBBLE, AND THE ENRON SCANDAL, AND THE EXECUTIVE PAY SCANDALS DID NOT OCCUR ON CLINTON'S WATCH, BUT BUSH'S
  • GUN CONTROL LOWERS CRIME, AND THE 2ND AMENDMENT IS EITHER A PRIVILEGE OR APPLIES ONLY TO MILITIAS
  • GLOBAL WARMING IS MAN-MADE, AND CAUSED BY CO2
  • DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMEN ARE HONEST AND HATE PORK
  • EUROPE IS BETTER THAN THE USA
  • CUBA'S AND CANADA'S AND THE UK'S HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS ARE BETTER THAN THE USA'S
  • GORE IS A PROPHET
  • ISRAEL ISN'T DOING ENOUGH TO MAKE PEACE WITH HER NEIGHBORS
  • GAZA IS STILL VIRTUALLY OCCUPIED
  • CHAVEZ IS A REFORMER
  • LEAKING NATIONAL SECRETS - LIKE THE NSA INTERCEPT PROGRAM AND THE SWIFT MONEY TRANSFER MONITORING PROGRAM - IS OKAY
  • SANDY BERGER DID NOTHING WRONG
  • THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS THE MOST CORRUPT EVER
  • BUSH DID NOT REALLY INCREASE SPENDING TO THEIR HIGHEST LEVELS EVER (AND MUCH MORE THAN CLINTON) FOR MEDICARE, EDUCATION, AND AGAINST AIDS IN AFRICA
  • BUSH IS NOT A LIBERAL ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM
  • ETC. ...

THE LEFT LIVES IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.

A FALSE ONE.

THEIR SUCCESS LIES IN THE FACT THAT THEY CONTROL THE ACADEMY AND THE MSM AND SO CAN ALWAYS GET AT LEAST 35-40% OF THE ELECTORATE TO BUY INTO THEIR LIES AND DISREGARD THE TRUTH.

MOST PEOPLE I KNOW ON THE LEFT - (AND I GREW UP ON THE LEFT AND LIVE IN NYC SO I KNOW HUNDREDS!) - REFUSE TO READ OR WATCH ANY NON-LEFT BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES OR TV NEWS OR DOCUMENTARIES.

HECK: MOST HAVE NEVER READ A SPEECH BY BUSH.

YET THEY CLAIM TO KNOW THE WHOLE STORY AND THE WHOLE TRUTH.

BECAUSE THEY MOSTLY INTERACT WITH ONLY OTHER LEFTISTS, THIS FALSE VIEW IS REINFORCED - DAILY.

THIS IS THE REASON THE SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED SURREALITY OF THE LEFT HASN'T YET BEEN SHATTERED, AND WHY LEFTISTS HAVEN'T YET BEEN LIBERATED FROM THE SHACKLES OF THEIR OWN LIES.

TO LIBERATE THEM WE NEED TO DESTROY THE MSM AND FOMENT INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY IN THE ACADEMY.

SCHADENFREUDE - PALESTINIANS THROW ROCKS AT ISRAELI PEACE NOW ACTIVISTS

Here's a little mathematical guided meditation exercise for you: take the words in Western media outlets that will be spent on this story and subtract the number of words that would have been spilled if the ones throwing the rocks had been Israeli rightwingers. Now take the absolute value, convert it to exponents, and sit in front of your computer being depressed because if you had that kind of money you wouldn't be at work right now:
Some 300 activists from the left-wing group Peace Now gathered in Hebron on Tuesday for a demonstration marking 40 years since Israel annexed the West Bank in the Six Day War. Substantial IDF and security forces were on hand to maintain order in case of disturbances, but the protest passed peacefully. However, local Palestinians threw stones at the Peace Now bus and a police vehicle after the demonstration. No one was hurt in the incident. The High Court of Justice authorized the protest on Monday. The group was protesting, among other things, the occupation of a Palestinian house by local settlers in April.
The peace activists are characterized by two salient features: (1) they're Jewish (2) they're against a Jewish presence in the West Bank. Presumably, the Palestinians weren't throwing rocks at them because they don't like Peace Now's stance on the Occupation.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

ISRAELI PUBLIC DIPLOMACY EXPERT: BRITISH BOYCOTT IS VICIOUSLY ANTI-SEMITIC

Public diplomacy - having put its faith in the ability of governments to appeal directly to foreign populations - is not precisely a home of radical right-wing sensibility. It presumes, among other things, that people who hate America or Israel do so for the reasons that they give, and that if those reasons are answered then their hate will be somewhat mitigated. Within the public diplomacy community, Israeli Prof. Eitan Gilboa is easily among the most prominent scholars. So it's worth noting how totally conclusive he is about the motives behind the British boycott:
The radical Left that stands behind the initiatives to impose boycotts on Israel is attempting to create the impression that it is only harshly criticizing Israeli policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians. In fact, it is negating Israel's right to exist and is conducting the harshest campaign of demonization and de-legitimization since the UN ruled that Zionism was racist. The boycotts are the result of several causes, including fervent Palestinian activity in the public diplomacy sphere referred to as PR (hasbara) in Israel. The Palestinians have joined the radical Left, which has succeeded in taking over trade unions in several Western countries. They are also assisted by several dubious Jews and Israelis. On the other hand, Israel has neglected this front, which has become a key tool in running foreign and defense affairs.
You can quibble with his solution - to demonstrate Israeli good will by appealing directly to the British public in the form of expanded cooperation. But when an international scholar of not exactly rightist reputation is saying these things about colleagues in other universities - to say nothing of his low opinion of Israeli useful idiots - then intellectualized anti-Semitism has gone from nudge-nudge wink-wink to openly vicious and vaguely genocidal.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

BBC: CARBON TRADING A FAILURE

BBC:
The EU's carbon trading scheme has increased electricity bills, given a windfall to power companies and failed to cut greenhouse gases, it is claimed. An investigation by BBC Radio 4's File on 4 programme has found that after two and half years the scheme has yet to cut in carbon dioxide emissions. The consumer body Energywatch said customers are getting a raw deal.
IT'S A TOTAL EFFIN' SCAM: FIRST OFF, CO2 HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GLOBAL WARMING; SECONDLY, CO2 TRADING DOESN'T REDUCE CO2.

CARBON TRADING: IT'S A FREAKIN' BUBBLE WAITING TO BURST.

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: NHS ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

THEY SAY IT SUCKS; POLITICS AND BUREAUCRATS RUINING IT.
(IMAGINE THAT, POLITICIANS MISMANAGING A LARGE BUREAUCRACY; HOW SHOCKING!)

AND IT'S GOING BROKE:
Three-quarter year forecasts for 2006-7 showed that the health service was on course to break even. But this masked the £1.3bn in deficits forecast to be run up by the third of hospitals and primary care trusts which pay for local services. It was predicted these hospitals and trusts would not balance the books by the end of the year.

These figures were almost exactly the same as the figures for 2005-6. The latest accounts will show that financial balance has only been achieved by taking money from elsewhere.
ROBBING NURSE PETER TO PAY DR. PAUL.

AND THEY MIGHT REFUSE TO OPERATE ON SMOKERS
. HOW SWEET.
(BUT HOMOSEXUALS WILL NO DOUBT CONTINUE TO GET AIDS CARE.)

GIVEN ALL THESE STRUCTURAL PROBLEM S, BAD CARE AND SKYROCKETING COSTS, SHOULD WE NATIONALIZE HEALTHCARE AND HAVE TAXPAYERS FOOT THE BILL?

DON'T FALL FOR IT. SOCIALISM SUCKS.

HILLARY WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT IN THE WORST WAY

AND SHE WOULD BE.

SO WOULD OBAMA AND EDWARDS.

THE BRITS CAN'T SEEM TO LET THE DEAD R.I.P.

BBC: EXPLICIT DIANA CRASH PICTURES TO BE PUBLISHED DESPITE PRINCES' PLEAS

BBC: 75 YEAR OLD GRAVES IN CEMETERIES TO BE RE-USED

UPS AND DOWNS

Go here to see my version of who is up and who is down this week along the lines of how the Beltway Boys do it, only LMC style!!

Chair correctness in the Unhinged Kingdom

BBC report:



Firefighters in Greater Manchester are facing disciplinary action over claims they slept on a station floor instead of their new reclining chairs. Three men, based in Bury, are being investigated for "involvement in the use of unauthorised rest facilities". It is claimed they broke regulations by using sleeping bags on the floor rather than the œ400 chairs. The chairs were installed as part of modernisation programme to replace all beds in the region's 41 fire stations.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said the men were all asleep as a team of inspectors from the fire service carried out a spot check early one morning. "We have now christened them the furniture police," said Manchester regional secretary Kevin Brown. Mr Brown said the service launched an investigation into the incident and the men were due to appear before a level three disciplinary hearing on 14 June. "A level three hearing leaves open the possibility for dismissal - this is how ludicrous this is," said Mr Brown. "Obviously what we are looking for is for common sense to prevail. "These people work a 15-hour night shift and they are entitled to take rest periods."

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said the inquiry concerned "involvement in the use of unauthorised rest facilities". "A full internal investigation into this matter is under way and no further comment can be made at this time," a spokesman said. The service bought more than 300 of the chairs last year after chiefs decided to remove beds from dormitories across the region. But firefighters were not allowed to sit or lie on the devices before reading a four-page health and safety manual.

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

The Democrat Presidential candidate debate: The ignored financial elephant

There have of course been innumerable blogospheric comments on the debate but I thought that the following comment on the financial implications made some rather overlooked but central points. I think it does highlight the usual Leftist assumption that money grows on trees

Three points about last night's Democratic debate in Manchester, N.H.:

1) Imagine a Democratic presidential debate about foreign policy where Iraq was never mentioned. That was pretty much the case at last night's candidate face-off when it came to domestic policy. Little was said about the long-term direction of the U.S. economy and what could be done to make it more innovative, competitive, and productive-the keys to raising our standard of living as we compete with China and India in the 21st century. Out of roughly 20,000 spoken words, mentions of "innovation," zero; "competitive," one (Richardson); "productivity," zero; "trade," six (Kucinich); "growth," one (Dodd); "China," six (Dodd, Kucinich, Richardson); "India," none; "middle class," three (Edwards, Clinton); "technology," three (Dodd, Obama, Richardson).

2) At one point, the candidates were asked what they would do about high gasoline prices. Most gave answers about what could be done to achieve energy independence in the long term. But as for right now, no one had much of an answer other than investigating the oil companies for collusion or price gouging. Nothing was said about the lack of refining capacity being the cause of the latest price surge. Also, none of the candidates-other than megadarkhorse Mike Gravel-suggested that high gas prices were, in fact, a good thing. If you are concerned about climate change, as the Dems say they are, shouldn't you cheer higher gas prices, since they might cause Americans to a) drive less and b) encourage greater investment in alternative energy sources?

3) The Democratic candidates continue to strangely double-spend the money they intend to get from raising taxes on Americans making over $200,000 a year. At one point, both Edwards and Obama said they would help pay for their healthcare plans by taxing the so-called rich to the tune of $50 billion a year. But guess what, advocates of reforming the alternative minimum tax-and Edwards, Obama, and Clinton certainly have that goal-usually point to higher taxes on the rich as a way of paying for AMT reform. So, AMT or healthcare: Which is it? A recent analysis by the Urban Institute put it this way:

"Blame whomever you want for today's current fiscal mess, but don't cling to any myths about how far rescinding recent tax cuts for the rich would go toward meeting the nation's many budgetary shortfalls. Our elected officials simply cannot get around the most fundamental of political dilemmas. Even if they enact additional taxes on the rich-and that would not be easy-they still must either retract many of the promises made to the middle class, increase its taxes, or both."

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EXECUTED FOR COMMITTING ADULTERY...

BY A TRIBE OF MUSLIMS IN PAKISTAN - IN THE TRIBAL REGION.

I WONDER HOW BJ CLINTON FEELS ABOUT THIS?

I WONDER HOW HILLARY FEELS ABOUT THIS?

(OR NEWT OR RUDY, TO BE FAIR...)

LIKE SLAVERY, THIS IS CONDONED IN THE BIBLE, BUT NO LONGER PRACTICED.

WE IN THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WEST HAVE EVOLVED.

CAN ISLAM EVOLVE?

A LOT IS RIDING ON WHETHER IS CAN, AND HOW SOON: AND WHETHER "EVOLVED" MUSLIMS CONTROL NUKES OR UN-EVOLVED MUSLIMS DO. IN PAKISTAN, AND SOON... IRAN...

THE CLOCK IS TICKING...

Promoting Universal Human Rights

"Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others, will be to constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic, and have no place in a Republic. The Constitution of this Republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom." abridged quote --Benjamin Rush, M.D., a signer of the Declaration of Independence

Update:

Reliapundit tells me that this is a bogus quote. It could very well be. However, it does in fact express something which has come to pass in America. The medical cartel through government regulation has effectively created a situation where medicine is controlled in America by private groups through government regulation. They restrict the supply of doctors through their trade schools and restict the medicines available through the operation of the FDA and control of pharmacies. No authorization from a doctor? No medicine.

The FDA will tell you how many lives they save by keeping bad medicines and treatments off the market. What they do not tell you is how many people die through the delay of getting good medicines and treatments through the FDA process.

At one time the job of the FDA was to prove that a treatment or medicine was not unduly harmful. Testing for that cost in the 10s of millions range and could be done fairly rapidly. Now the FDA requires proof that medicines work. This takes much longer and costs a lot more. Ten to one hundred times more. Medicines which treat diseases which do not affect large numbers of people no longer get developed because with the regulatory scheme now in place such development is not profitable.

Do the members of the medical cartel complain about this onerous regulation? Of course not. They can afford the costs and it keeps the little guys out of the market. As usually happens with government regulation it starts out purporting to help the people and winds up benefitting the regulated at the expense of the people. The history of the Interstate Commerce Comission (ICC) is instructive in this regards. It was originally put in place to prevent "predatory" pricing by the railroads and extended itself into the regulation of the trucking companies - competitors of the railroad. The ICC has been effictively abolished and what happened? Freight rates went down. Could it be that if we abolished the FDA and the requirement that only doctors approved by the AMA can practice medicine or grant access to drugs that the cost of health care would be determined by the market and not the government?

All this is the first step in the socialization of medicine. First a cartel gets hold of the regulatory mechanism and drives up prices. Then in order to combat the power of the cartel we are told that a bigger cartel (socialized medicine) is needed.

It amazes me that so many who are against socialized medicine favor heavy government regulation of medicine. The control disease for which only more control is the cure.

I'm not against the AMA or pharmacies that want to be governed by their rules. However, they ought not have a government license to print money.

From the Wiki on the AMA:
Critics of the American Medical Association, including economist Milton Friedman, have asserted that the organization acts as a government-sanctioned guild and has attempted to increase physicians' wages and fees limit by influencing limitations on the supply of physicians and non-physician competition [13][14]. They assert that these actions not only have inflated the cost of healthcare in the United States but also have caused a decline in the quality of healthcare.
Now all this came up because Reliapundit and I disagree about the usefulness of the drug war. Here is a list of some diseases for which there is evidence that marijuana is an effective treatment. My take is that the medical cartel loves the DEA. Imagine growing your own medicine and taking it without a doctor's approval. If that sort of thing started happening on a regular basis people might get ideas.

Further update:

The first attribution of the Benjamin Rush quote I could find is from: Rush, Benjamin & Corner, George Washington ; The autobiography of Benjamin Rush; his "Travels through Life" together with his Commonplace Book for 1789-1813, ed. with introd. and notes by George W. Corner. Now first printed in full from the original manuscripts in possession of The American Philosophical Society and The Library Company of Philadelphia. ; Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1948. Art and Medicine