ZAKARIA: "As I love Muslims, I hate Islam."

NOT THE STUPID ZAKARIA, THE SMART ONE!

UPDATE: STEIN BAGGER - THE DANISH HELL'S ANGEL SWINDLER - ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA

FOLLOWING UP TO OUR EARLIER POST:

IT Factory’s Bagger Arrested In California After Worldwide Search

An update on our previous article about bankrupt Danish company IT Factory and its missing managing director Stein Bagger: Bagger contacted local authorities in California and was arrested earlier today, say Danish news sites.

A translated version of one of the articles is here. A Danish reader named Marks Jensen writes to us:

The information is sparse right now, but the family left a post on their blog earlier today, stating that they had talked to Stein indirectly and knew he was okay. He had explained to them that he was forced into doing the fraud because he felt threatened, and that he wanted to talk to the officials in the country he was hiding in. Apparently he contacted the Californian police around 1 PM local time.

Stein Bagger is wanted by the Danish police for financial fraud and a possible link to an assault on a business man (alledgedly executed by members of the Hell’s Angels, a group he is possibly connected to). Bagger first disappeared a little over a week ago in Dubai, where he was attending a business conference with his family.

A lot of facts are still missing. We’ll update as this developS.

STAY TUNED...

"He who is kind to the cruel ends up being cruel to the kind."

The cruel and the kind:

This past Shabbat, the residents of Ashkelon had their Seuda Shlishit (3rd festive meal of the Shabbat) in bomb shelters.

Barak of course has done nothing against the Hamas and Jihad that have made a joke of the silly ceasefire, but yet shows big muscle against Jewish settlers.

Barak, the morally corrupt self-serving Defense Minister is merely trying to save his floundering party and dying political career.

Our sages described the anti-emuna Barak to the letter (see Yalkut Shimoni, Shmuel I:15, 121): "He who is kind to the cruel ends up being cruel to the kind."

Mister Barak has no answer to the constant threat of Missiles from Hamastan, and has been unable to bring Gilad Shalit home.

Yet, he does commando missions against women and children, illegally evicting them from their homes in the middle of the night.

The same Barak, who unilaterally pulled the IDF out of South Lebanon seven years ago, thereby putting Hizbolla on Israel's Northern border and destroying whatever was left of IDF deterrent power, ran on an anti-Orthodox hate platform of a secular revolution.

If it were up to him, he'd strip Israel of anything Jewish.

That's why he and his friends in Kadima have no qualms in surrendering everything that's holy to us, such as the Machpelah Cave in Hevron, Joseph's Grave in Shechem, and even East Jerusalem where out holy Western Wall is located, G-d forbid.

KADIMA SANS SHARON IS NO BETTER THAN MERETZ OR LABOUR - OR THE DEMOCRATS.

• THOSE WHO WOULD UPROOT JEWS FROM THEIR ANCIENT HOMELAND AND SUBJECT ISRAEL TO MORE DANGER ARE NOT JUST THE ENEMIES OF JUDAISM AND ISRAEL BUT OF PEACE.

• THAT MEANS BARAK AND LIVNI AND OBAMA.

• THE SO-CALLED "PEACE PROCESS" HAS ACTUALLY BEEN A PIECE PROCESS: SURRENDERING TO THE ENEMIES OF ISRAEL PIECE-BY-PIECE.

• IT'S TIME EVERYONE RECOGNIZED THAT IT'S A SHAM AND THAT THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE PEACE IS THROUGH STRENGTH, IF NOT ... VICTORY.

5 nice songs...

SCREW THE NIXON-FROST MOVIE; I WANNA SEE NIXON-ELVIS!

Lefties can't get enough Nixon-bashing.




They seem to forget that he ended the draft, ended the Vietnam War, opened China, brought the EPA into existence, signed the FIRST Clean Air/Clean Water Acts, invented detente and signed the first USSR-USA arms treaties, aided Soviet Jewry - and so on - IN JUST FIVE YEARS!








That's more long-lasting good for the whole world in 5 years than Carter and Clinton in their 12! (WITHOUT ALL THE BAD CRAP, EITHER! LIKE IRAN AND RWANDA!)


But because they can't get enough of Nixon-bashing they've done another movie about the great man: NIXON FROST based on the play which was based on actual interviews David Frost had with a discredited Nixon.

WHAT A BORE IT IS BEING LEFTIST!

I'd much rather someone - like MAMET maybe - wrote a play about the time NIXON MET WITH ELVIS!

INJECTABLE ARTIFICAL BONE TO REPLACE BONE GRAFTS

ACCORDING TO NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS.

CAN A DAILY DOSE OF BACLOFEN CURE ALCOHOL ADDICTION?

YES - ACCORDING TO THIS FRENCH DOCTOR.

MISSILE DEFENSE: 37/47

VIDEO OF THE LATEST SUCCESSFUL TEST.

• WE'RE NOW 37/47.
• IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU MR. OBAMA?
• IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR POLAND!
  
• (AND THE REST OF THE NATIONS MENACED BY RUSSIA AND IRAN AND NORTH KOREA!)

EARTH'S HOMEOSTASIS: WARMING EARTH WOULD BIND MORE ATMSOPHERIC CO2

• WHEN IT COMES TO MAN-MADE CO2,
• THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT:
• AS THE EARTH WARMS, (REGARDLESS OF ITS CAUSE),
• OCEANS AND DE-ICED LANDMASSES WOULD SUPPORT
• MORE PLANT LIFE AND BIND MORE ATMOSPHERIC CO2.
• NET RESULT OF WARMING: GOOD FOR HUMANITY:
• MORE FARMING, MORE FISHING, MORE FOOD FOR EVERYONE!
• IF MAN-MADE CO2 HASTENS THAT, THEN BRING IT ON!
  

GOD AND MAN IN AMERICA: THERE IS NO BASIS FOR THE SEPARATION OF "FAITH" AND "STATE"

THE DECLARATION IS BASED ON NATURAL LAW AND BELIEF IN - FAITH IN - THE CREATOR, GOD.


THE CONSTITUTION FORBIDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ANY OFFICIAL STATE SECT, BUT NOT OF RELIGION OR FAITHFULNESS.


THE "SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE" MEANS "SEPARATION OF THE STATE FROM ANY PARTICULAR SECT", NOT THAT THE STATE MUST BE SEPARATED FROM ALL RELIGION OR FROM FAITHFULNESS, PER SE.

IT'S AN "ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE", NOT AN "ATHEISM CLAUSE".

ALL THE FOUNDERS WERE MEN OF FAITH WHO BELIEVED IN NATURAL LAW.

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON SPOKE OFFICIALLY OF PROVIDENCE AND GOD ALL THE TIME.


WASHINGTON'S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION IS BUT ONE EXAMPLE; (EXCERPT):

... text of the proclamation issued October 3, 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and

Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE STATE IS OBLIGATED TO BE ATHEISTIC, JUST SECT-LESS.

IF AYERS HAS NOTHING TO REPENT, THEN WHY DID OBAMA THINK HE HAD BEEN "REHABILITATED"?

AYERS OP-ED IN THE NYTIMES IS A PACK OF DISGUSTING FILTHY LIES.

• HE CLAIMS THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND WAS NOT TERRORISTS AND DIDN'T TARGET PEOPLE.
• THIS IS A LIE. THEY TARGETED PEOPLE AND KILLED MANY.
• MANY MORE MIGHT HAVE BEEN KILLED.
• AYERS DESERVES WORSE THAN OJ SIMPSON.
• WILL NO ONE RID US OF THIS MENDACIOUS, ANTI-AMERICAN, VIOLENT AND DANGEROUS MAN!?

BOTTOM-LINE: IF AYERS HAS NOTHING TO REPENT, THEN WHY DID OBAMA THINK HE HAD BEEN "REHABILITATED"? WHAT HAD AYERS DONE WHICH REQUIRED 'REHABILITATION"?

THEY'RE BOTH LIARS.

UPDATE: BRILLIANT ANALYSIS HERE.

STATE DEPARTMENT OPPOSES JEWS BUYING OWN PROPERTY IN HEBRON

The US State Department once again shows why it's bad:

(IsraelNN.com) The U.S. State Department praised Israel's government for its actions in expelling Jews from their homes Thursday afternoon in the Peace House apartment building in Hevron, saying the residents had illegally occupied the site.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood characterized the violent clashes in which dozens of activists were injured by Yassam government forces as "a difficult situation." He added in his briefing Friday morning with reporters in Washington D.C. that the Israeli government was doing what it could to make sure the residents comply with the laws in Israel.

"They were basically arresting people -- removing people from a site that they were occupying illegally," said Wood. A reporter, asking for clarification, repeated the question, "Did you say a site they were occupying legally or illegally?"

Wood repeated, "Illegally."

Well! As we can see here, they're as bad as the British government, by condoning removing people from a legally bought house and then lying about it and concealing the exact details.

VIDEO: EVICTED HEBRON SETTLERS FIRED WEAPONS IN SELF-DEFENSE

LOOKS LIKE SELF-DEFENSE TO ME:



THE SO-CALLED "POGROM" OF JEWS AGAINST ARABS IN HEBRON IS PROBABLY AS REAL AS THE AL DURA MURDER AND "JENINGRAD" WERE - WHICH IS TO SAY FAKE, PROPAGANDA. PALLYWOOD.

THE REAL POGROM WAS THAT BY THE IDF AGAINST THEIR FELLOW JEWS.

IF HEBRON CAN'T BE SAFE FOR JEWS, THEN NO WHERE CAN BE.


REMINDER:

ARMED JEW:

UNARMED JEW:

LIVE ACCORDING

AMERICA'S EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS ARE BETTER THAN EUROPE'S

France - 7.7
Spain 12.8
Germany 7.5
Euro-zone 7.6

The USA at 6.7 is the best. And the USA numbers doesn't include "make work"/fake gov't jobs which exist in so many of the Euro-zone countries and which they count as real jobs.

BOTTOM-LINE: Right now, we're doing the best in the whole world.

But Obama would turn our economy into one more like those in the Euro-zone - which, despite europhilia on the Left, is WORSE than America's!

OY.

OBAMA ANNOUNCES HUGE NEW FEDERAL BOONDOGGLE: CUI BONO?

NYTIMES:

Mr. Obama and his team are working with Congressional leaders to devise a spending package that some lawmakers have suggested could total $400 billion to $700 billion. Some analysts forecast even higher costs.

A big part of that will be public works spending, particularly on projects aimed at conserving or expanding energy supplies and cleaning up the environment. “We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s,” Mr. Obama said.

... Mr. Obama also responded to criticism of waste and inefficiency in such programs by promising new rules to govern spending, like a “use it or lose it” requirement that states act quickly to invest in roads and bridges or sacrifice federal money.

“We won’t do it the old Washington way,” Mr. Obama said. “We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.”

Mr. Rendell said such rules would help get people to work right away. In his state, he said, contractors generally have 120 days to turn in bids for projects, but he will cite these rules to cut it to 30 days. “If they complain and moan and whine,” he said, “I’m going to say, ‘use it or lose it.’ ”

A substantial part of the proposed economic package will go toward creating so-called green jobs, those that benefit the environment or save energy. That part of the package could run as high as $100 billion over two years, according to an aide familiar with the discussions.

• THE CHICAGO MACHINE IS SALIVATING...

• WHO WILL GET THE CONTRACTS?

• THEY WILL DECIDE.

• I HAVE A FEELING THEY'LL PICK THEIR FRIEND$.

• FOLKS WHO MAKE REZKO SEEM LIKE A PIKER.

• AND IT'LL BE RUN AS HONESTLY AS THEY RUN THEIR CITY.

• OBAMA'S CITY.

• AND THE "GREEN JOBS" PART!? A TOTAL EFFIN WASTE AS THERE IS NO AGW;
  
• ALL CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL, NOT ANTHROPOGENIC.
  

• FACT: 1998 WAS THE HOTTEST YEAR IN THE DECADE;
  
• 2008 THE COOLEST -
  
• YET CO2 HAS STEADILY INCREASED.
• THIS DISPROVES THE MAN-MADE CO2 THEORY.
  

• END OF STORY.
  

• PERIOD.
  

Universe's dark matter mix is 'just right' for life

From the New Scientist:

IT'S not just the nature of dark matter that's a mystery - even its abundance is inexplicable. But if our universe is just one of many possible universes, at least this conundrum can be explained.

The total amount of dark matter - the unseen stuff thought to make up most of the mass of the universe - is five to six times that of normal matter. This difference sounds pretty significant, but it could have been much greater, because the two types of matter probably formed via radically different processes shortly after the big bang. The fact that the ratio is so conducive to a life-bearing universe "looks like a tremendous coincidence", says Raphael Bousso at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ben Freivogel, also at UCB, wondered if the ratio can be explained using the anthropic principle which, loosely stated, says that the properties of the universe must be suitable for the emergence of life, otherwise we wouldn't be here asking questions about it. In order to avoid questions about how these properties became so finely tuned, the anthropic principle is combined with the idea that our universe is part of a multiverse, in which each universe has randomly determined properties.

Freivogel focused on one of the favoured candidate-particles for dark matter, the axion. Axions have the right characteristics to be dark matter, but for one problem: a certain property called its "misalignment angle", which would have affected the amount of dark matter produced in the early universe. If this property is randomly determined, in most cases it would result in a severe overabundance of dark matter, leading to a universe without the large-scale structure of clusters of galaxies. To result in our universe, it has to be just the right value.

In a multiverse, each universe will have a random value for the axion's misalignment angle, giving some universes the right amount of dark matter needed to give rise to galaxies, stars, planets and life as we know it.

Freivogel combined the cosmological models of large-scale structure formation with the physics of axions to predict the most likely value for the ratio of dark matter to normal matter that would allow observers like us to emerge. He assumed that the number of observers in a universe is proportional to the number of galaxies within it.

In Freivogel's model, changing the ratio of matter type impacts the formation of galaxies, and hence observers; for example, too little dark matter would prevent the formation of galaxies and stars. His calculations show that of all the observers that might exist across the many universes, most would live in a universe with the dark matter abundance found in ours. In other words, we would be less likely to be here if our abundance of dark matter were different (www.arxiv.org/abs/0810.0703).

KADIMA VIOLATED ELECTION LAWS WITH ANONYMOUS ATTACK ON NETANYAHU

Kadima published an anonymous attack ad against Benjamin Netanyahu, leading to the following:

(IsraelNN.com) Justice Eliezer Rivlin of the Central Elections Committee ruled Thursday that Kadima must either put its name on anonymous attack ads or take them down. The ruling was handed down in response to a petition from Likud MK Michael Eitan.

The attack ads in question target Likud head Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, and say, “Bibi? I don't trust him.” The ads have been posted on popular Israeli websites and hundreds of buses nationwide.

Rivlin gave the party three days to remove the ads or put its name on them.

This may have backfired already, as it would tell the public that Kadima is too cowardly to clearly identify themselves in an advertisement they've come up with.

Hundreds rally at UW against anti-homosexual-marriage column in campus newspaper

We read:

"About 200 people attended a rally Friday at the University of Washington to protest an anti-gay marriage column that ran in the student newspaper, The Daily. Protesters say language in the column, including a reference to bestiality, coupled with the accompanying image of a man standing next to a sheep, amounted to hate speech. But speakers differed on whether the paper should be censured.

Ana Mari Cauce, the UW's dean of arts and sciences, talked about her own struggles coming out as a lesbian and the hurt she felt in reading the column. "But the antidote to free speech is more free speech," she said. "I am thankful that I am living in a country where everyone has the right to express their opinions."

On the other hand, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) this week passed a resolution demanding the paper apologize. However, the editor-in-chief of The Daily, Sarah Jeglum, said this week she stands behind the decision to run the column and isn't planning any sort of apology. In a Friday column, Jeglum said she'd learned "Free speech is for everyone. It's not just for the majority, and it's not just for the minority."

That difference of opinion, if not resolved, could lead to a showdown between the editors of the paper and the elected student-body representatives who sit on the publications board which oversees The Daily. Dave Iseminger, GPSS vice president, hinted at such a showdown when he said at the rally that lacking an apology, his group may work to change the composition of the paper's editorial board.

Source

The column concerned was a perfectly rational one. Here is an excerpt:

"Race is a biological state; homosexuality is more of an emotional condition, and we should not, for that reason alone, start passing laws condoning it. Being homosexual, like other emotional tendencies, doesn't make someone a bad person, but it's a problem that needs to be dealt with, not denied. Now, there are several major problems with legalizing gay marriage. Once you've legalized gay marriage, why not polygamy, incest, bestiality or any other form of union? If the only criteria is that people love each other, then who says it's wrong for a 70-year-old man to marry 10 underage girls?

Source

Rational debate is beyond the Left. All that they are good at is hate.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Instinctive influences on morality

I am one of the many who believe that we all have inborn moral responses. So when people say that something is "just wrong" they are not really being incoherent but are being guided by strongly felt moral instincts in themselves. I set out my thoughts on the matter at more length here.

A recent piece of research rather strongly supports that view. The research was based on the responses of a small group of (mainly) young women attending a minor British university so we must not get too excited about its generalizability but it may be a straw in the wind nonetheless. Below is one summary of it:

"A new study has found that people are more likely to be lenient in making decisions if they have just washed their hands. British scientists who carried out the research said the findings suggest that jurors in criminal trials who have cleansed their hands may make their verdict less severe. And voters may be more likely to excuse a politician's misdemeanours when going to the ballot box if they have just had a shower.

In the study, 22 people who had washed their hands, and 22 who had not, were made to watch a disgusting three-minute clip of heroin addicts from the hit film Trainspotting. All 44 were then asked to rate how morally wrong they deemed the series of acts shown to them on a scale of one to nine, with one being acceptable and seven being very wrong. The actions included stealing money from a wallet, lying on a job application, cooking and eating the family dog, killing a dying plane crash survivor to avoid starvation, and abusing a kitten. All said they thought the actions were 'wrong'. However, the participants who had washed their hands were less likely to judge the actions as harshly as the group who had not.

In another experiment, a group was asked to read sentences with words such as 'purity' and 'cleanliness' before being posed the same moral dilemmas. Another group was given sentences with neutral words. Again, the 'clean' group judged the unethical behaviour less harshly.

Lead researcher Dr Simone Schnall, a psychologist at the University of Plymouth, said: "We like to think we arrive at decisions because we deliberate, but incidental things can influence us. "This could have implications when voting and when juries make up their minds." Lancaster University psychologist Professor Carey Cooper described the findings as "terrifying". He said: "It suggests that washing can make us more prepared to accept wrongdoing. "It is very scary when you think of the implications, especially in the judicial world."

The original report of the research is here.

So judgments of right and wrong are simply not rational. They are instinctive. I think conservatives will be a lot more comfortable with that than Leftists are. Leftist don't think ANYTHING (except homosexuality) is instinctive.

One should note however that the setting of the research was deliberately designed to draw out instinctive responses. People on a jury (for instance) may be less influenced by irrelevancies. Nonetheless it has long been known in psychological research that incidental factors can influence research results. This is merely the latest instance of it.

The original research article gives some interesting and plausible theoretical background to what they found.

If I were being devil's advocate, I would say that the results show that middle-class young women in Britain have been taught to associate cleanliness with virtue and to associate virtue with mercy so the old "more research is needed" applies here too. Would you get the same results with Lebanese? Maybe not.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

LEBANESE BANKERS: SMART, OR DID THEY KNOW SOMETHING?

From the BBC:Lebanon 'immune' to financial crisis

Beirut: The world maybe in meltdown but Beirut is booming. The country best known for wars, turmoil and instability has not just survived the global financial crisis, it seems to be thriving because of it.

Deep down in the basement of Lebanon's Central bank treasury vaultsare full. Cash has been flowing in like never before, Lebanese banks are posting record deposits and bankers say this is the best year in Lebanon's financial history.

According to the country's chief banker all of this is because while the world was shocked when in September the banking giants began to wobble, Lebanon was prepared.

"I saw the crisis coming and I told the commercial banks in 2007 to get out of all international investments related to the international markets", says Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon's Central Bank.

"You could have thought they had a crystal ball"
Edward GardnerInternational Monetary Fund

Immigrants must learn English to qualify for a British passport

Immigrants who make little effort to integrate into society will wait longer before they can become British citizens under changes to citizenship rules. As part of the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill, they will have to “earn” the right to a passport rather than simply achieving it through five years’ residence. The latest measure will end the automatic right to stay and replace it with a new system of “earned citizenship” and temporary residence.

Arrivals will have to demonstrate a good ability in English and a knowledge of life in Britain before becoming citizens. Immigrants who do no voluntary work will qualify only after eight years and those who become unemployed will be asked to leave.

The Bill will deny full access to social benefits, including social housing, to those who have not completed a new period of probationary citizenship of between one and five years. The aim is to link the gaining of a British passport to a greater commitment to the British way of life. Immigrants convicted of serious criminal offences could be barred from citizenship and those found guilty of minor crimes may face delays in having their applications processed.

The suggestion of a Bank Holiday to celebrate Britain appears to have been abandoned.

The Bill will also reduce the restrictions on people from overseas, but who have a British-born mother, applying to become a citizen. Children born to British mothers before 1961 will be able to apply for citizenship. Previously it was passed on through fathers.

The Government proposes to levy a top-up fee on immigrants to create a fund expected to run to 20 million pounds. Cash from the fund will be distributed to local authorities facing short-term pressure because of an influx of migrants.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “These proposed reforms are a tacit admission that the Government has failed in its seven previous immigration Bills. We need to re-establish controls over our borders so we can count people in and out.”

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Was Hitler a racist?

"John Ray has now gone too far. Pointing out that Nazism was simply an extreme version of prewar Leftism was fine but denying that Hitler was a racist is right off the planet". That is the sort of reaction I expect to the above heading. But as Eddington said, the universe is not only stranger than you imagine but it is stranger than you can imagine. And the truth is that Hitler's ideas about race were pretty similar to the thinking of Leftists today. We all know that Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat but what have you ever read about what his conception of race was? You may be surprised.

Although in his speeches he undoubtedly appealed to the nationalism of the German people, Locke (2001) makes a strong case that Hitler was not in fact a very good nationalist in that he always emphasized that his primary loyalty was to what he called the Aryan race -- and Germany was only one part of that race. Locke then goes on to point out that Hitler was not even a very consistent racist in that the Dutch, the Danes etc. were clearly Aryan even by Hitler's own eccentric definition yet he attacked them whilst at the same time allying himself with the very non-Aryan Japanese. And the Russians and the Poles (whom Hitler also attacked) are rather more frequently blonde and blue-eyed (Hitler's ideal) than the Germans themselves are! So what DID Hitler believe in?

In his book Der Fuehrer, prewar Leftist writer Konrad Heiden corrects the now almost universal assumption that Hitler's idea of race was biologically-based. The Nazi conception of race traces, as is well-known, to the work of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. But what did Chamberlain say about race? It should not by now be surprising that he said something that sounds thoroughly Leftist. Anthropologist Robert Gayre summarizes Chamberlain's ideas as follows:

"On the contrary he taught (like many "progressives" today) that racial mixture was desirable, for, according to him, it was only out of racial mixture that the gifted could be created. He considered that the evidence of this was provided by the Prussian, whom he saw as the superman, resulting from a cross between the German (or Anglo-Saxon "German") and the Slav. From this Chamberlain went on to argue that the sum of all these talented people would then form a "race," not of blood but of "affinity."

So the Nazi idea of race rejected biology just as thoroughly as modern Leftist ideas about race do! If that seems all too jarring to believe, Gayre goes on to discuss the matter at length.

So although Hitler made powerful USE of German nationalism, we see from both the considerations put forward by Locke and the intellectual history discussed by Gayre, that Hitler was not in fact much motivated by racial loyalty as we would normally conceive it. So what was he motivated by?

Locke suggests that Hitler's actions are best explained by saying that he simply had a love of war but offers no explanation of WHY Hitler would love war. Hitler's extreme Leftism does explain this however. Hitler shared with other Leftists a love of constant change and excitement --- and what could offer more of that than war (or, in the case of other Leftists, the civil war of "revolution")?

The idea that Nazism was motivated primarily by a typically Leftist hunger for change and excitement and hatred of the status quo is reinforced by the now famous account of life in Nazi Germany given by a young "Aryan" who lived through it. Originally written before World War II, Haffner's (2002) account of why Hitler rose to power stresses the boring nature of ordinary German life and observes that the appeal of the Nazis lay in their offering of relief from that:

"The great danger of life in Germany has always been emptiness and boredom ... The menace of monotony hangs, as it has always hung, over the great plains of northern and eastern Germany, with their colorless towns and their all too industrious, efficient, and conscientious business and organizations. With it comes a horror vacui and the yearning for 'salvation': through alcohol, through superstition, or, best of all, through a vast, overpowering, cheap mass intoxication."

So he too saw the primary appeal of Nazism as its offering of change, novelty and excitement. And how about another direct quote from Hitler himself?

"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions"

(Speech of May 1, 1927. Quoted by Toland, 1976, p. 306)

So Hitler WAS a racist -- but a very mixed-up one -- just as modern-day Leftists are -- who support racial preferences (affirmative action) but still say they are anti-racist! The big failure for both Hitler and the modern-day Left is an inability to treat people as individuals. They cannot even think about others except by lumping them into huge and simplistic categories.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

WHERE IS STEIN BAGGER?

UPDATE: STEIN BAGGER WANTED BY INTERPOL

Most readers of this blog must now be thinking "Wait...who is Stein Bagger?" He is the lead character in a truly amazing story for our time...but first let me posit that the current financial crisis is the "watergate" of the modern financial system. Just as it took Ronald Reagan to restore faith in the political system (for rightwingers that is)...and one could argue that Obama's election is the culmination of that process (i.e. young and disaffected voters actually participated in the election...and are soon to enjoy their own rude awakening...) it may take many years to restore faith in the financial system - and it's actors - after an eventual economic recovery.

Stein Bagger was until recently the President and C.E.O. of a company called I.T. Factory. This company was a little software development company that enjoyed explosive sales growth over the past few years. At its' peak, ITF was selling about $2 million dollars per employee! And most of the 139 employees were software developers or office personnel!!! Stein Bagger was responsible for 90% of the company's turnover!

Just two weeks ago Ernst & Young awarded ITF and Stein Bagger the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 award - which has since been rescinded. And fyi KPMG was the Company's accountants...

Now the proverbial sh*t has hit the fan...the house of cards has crumbled and the truth is beginning to emerge: Stein Bagger created a SCAM based on fictitious invoices for fictitious leasing contracts with fictitious companies. He then secured real financing for these fictitious transactions from an array of the leading banks and companies...Danske Bank, IBM, HP etc. I would guess these were short term agreements, that required an expanding supply of new contracts to finance. Stein Bagger must have realized that his leasing carousel was getting too big...and buyers interested in the company were getting too close to the truth. Now Stein Bagger has disappeared - and reliable sources estimate he has absconded with 200 MILLION DOLLARS!

You can find the following PR crap on line about this crook:

For an event IT Factory sponsored in California:

Stein Bagger CEO, IT Factory

Stein Bagger joined IT FACTORY in December 2001. His main purpose was to devise and implement new strategies to cope with changes in global IT market after the .com burst. Another asset for IT FACTORY is benefiting from Stein's in long time experience in a firm and focused execution and how to grow profitable businesses. Prior to Stein's engagement with IT FACTORY, Stein has been President and CEO in other international software companies with a primary focus on business development, strategic alliances and financing. Stein Bagger holds two bachelor degrees; one in accounting and one in economics. Stein also holds an MBA and a PhD in International Business.

Well - actually Stein Bagger's CV was also a "tissue of lies" - no MBA or PhD. In fact he was a miniput steroid ingesting body builder with strong connections to the Hell's Angels. A look at his work experience reveals involvement with about 16 companies - one third of which went bankrupt and the rest were closed by the Government! His real CV would show that Stein Bagger was eminently qualified to pull off this "heist".

Hopefully an English language journalist will bring the complete story to a wider public - or you can wait about 18 months and see the film Zentropa (as in Lars von Trier) plans to make about this saga. It's got all the elements - money, betrayal, and sex! Maybe they will cast Demi Moore as the wife, and Cherize Theron as the Swedish-fitness-instructor-mistress kept in a company apartment in Stockholm!!!

What pisses me off most is the long list of idiots, working at these banks, who were tripping over each other to lend money to this crook!!!!

PIGS FLY: OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR USES THE TERM "GLOBAL JIHAD"

DAWN:

US President-elect Barack Obama’s adviser on South Asian affairs alleges that those who carried out last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai had links to Pakistani intelligence agencies.

“If there’s anything that is a 64 million dollar question today,” it is finding out the “extent of its (Lashkar-e-Tayyaba) current ties to the Pakistani intelligence service,” said Bruce Riedel at a discussion hosted by Brookings Institution on “Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: A Challenge for India and the World”.

In an interview to CNN earlier this week, President Asif Ali Zardari said the attacks were executed by “non-state actors” and rejected the suggestion that Pakistani intelligence agencies were involved.

But Mr Riedel, a former CIA official and now a member of Mr Obama’s policy working group on national security, said it’s difficult to believe the Pakistani government’s assertions “given the size of its (LeT) activities in Pakistan”.

He said the Mumbai terror plot was carried out by “professionals, who were trained by professionals who were given a professional plan.” The attacks “were not a plot by amateurs or by a pick-up group”, he added.

Mr Riedel also backed claims by other US officials that global terrorist networks like Al Qaeda were also involved in the attacks.

“The evidence is already pretty clear that this attack had links to the global jihad and that those involved in it were going after the targets of the global jihad,” he said.

IT IS GOOD THAT AT LEAST ONE ADVISOR REALIZES WHO THE ENEMY IS AND WHAT THEY WANT.

I HOPE OBAMA DOESN'T THROW HIM UNDER THE BUS...

OOOOOOOPS: NYTIMES FORGETS ECO-NUTSIE AGW AGENDA AND ACTUALLY PROMOTES SKIING IN THE NORTHEAST DURING WINTER!

NTYIMES:

For this exercise, I have chosen a small swath of north-central Vermont where an urban couple, a suburban family or roommates from a college dorm suite could settle in for a few days or a week and with a little imagination, capture the all-inclusive feel of a Western trip.

You want isolation and powdery glades? Have you ever been to Jay Peak, just five miles from the Canadian border? Jay Peak had more than 400 inches of snow last season. And Jay Peak had powder — I saw my skis disappear in it — last weekend.

NO GLOBAL WARMING IN VERMONT!

OR ANYWHERE: ACCORDING TO THE UN, GLOBAL WARMING HAS STOPPED.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS: 'Solar magnetic field may impact climate'

Melbourne (PTI): The solar magnetic field may have a significant impact on the global weather and climatic parameters, according to a study.

"The interaction between the directionality in the Suns and Earths magnetic fields, the incidence of ultraviolet radiation over the tropical Pacific, and changes in sea surface temperatures with cloud cover could all contribute to an explanation of substantial changes in the SOI from solar cycle fluctuations," said professor Robert G. V. Baker from the School of Environmental Studies, University of New England, Australia.

The study, published in Geographical Research, said the sun's magnetic field may have a significant impact on weather and climatic parameters in Australia and other countries in the northern and southern hemispheres. "If solar cycles continue to show relational values to climate patterns, there is the potential for more accurate forecasting through to 2010 and possibly beyond," said lead author Baker.

According to the study, droughts are related to the solar magnetic phases and not the greenhouse effect.

It uses data from 1876 to the present to examine the correlation between solar cycles and the extreme rainfall in Australia, the Science Daily online said.

The researchers found that the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) the basic tool for forecasting variations in global and oceanic patterns and rainfall fluctuations recorded over the last decade are similar to those in 1914 -1924.

(EARLIER POSTED AT TAB HERE.)

REVIEW:

1 - THE EARTH HASN'T WARMED SINCE 1998.

2 - NOTHING IN THE PREVIOUS DECADE'S GLOBAL TEMPS IS ANY DIFFERENT THAN OTHER DECADES OF WARMING - DESPITE HUGE DIFFERENCES IN THE AMOUNT OF MAN-MADE CO2 IN THE ATMOSPHERE.

3- CO2 HAS INCREASED IN EACH OF THE LAST TEN YEARS, BUT TEMPS HAVE NOT.

THEREFORE, BECAUSE MAN-MADE "GREENHOUSE GASES" ARE NOT CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING, IT WOULD BE A RIDICULOUS CRIME FOR THE USA - AND ANY OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATION - TO ENACT ANY CO2 OR CARBON TAXES OF ANY KIND, OR TO CURB THE USE OF ANY FOSSIL FUEL BECAUSE USING IT GIVES OFF CO2.

INDUSTRIALIZATION REMAINS ONE OF THE GREATEST BOONS TO HUMAN LIFE IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY - ALONG WITH JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND CAPITALISM.

SO, WHY DO THE POSTMODERN LEFTISTS HATE ALL OF THESE THINGS!?!?

BECAUSE THEY'RE STUPID CAVEMEN.

America Is Not In Decline

From The American:

Demographic and economic trends suggest that the age of American dominance won’t end anytime soon.

Barack Obama and the next Congress will take power at a time when the financial crisis and Mesopotamian misadventures have spurred talk of America’s decline. Last week, a Russian analyst was even giddily forecasting the collapse and breakup of the United States, with Russia and China becoming joint global hegemons. Such predictions may comfort critics and opponents of American power, but they lack any real basis. In fact, long-term demographic and economic trends suggest that the age of American dominance won’t end anytime soon.

In Futurecast (St. Martin’s Press, $26.95), economist Robert Shapiro, a founder of the Progressive Policy Institute and now chairman of the consulting firm Sonecon, examines how the relentless forces of demographics and globalization will shape the world of 2020. His analysis suggests that the United States will remain the leading global power. Europe, Japan, and China, meanwhile, have reason to worry.

Demographic trends will have seismic effects on the world’s economies and may even spur domestic conflicts over dwindling resources. Indeed, Shapiro cautions that much of the world is about to confront “the greatest aging of national populations ever seen, along with the smallest relative numbers of working-age people on record.”

In Europe and Japan, where labor forces are already shrinking, fewer workers will have to pay more taxes to support the growing pensioner population, triggering a vicious economic cycle. Workers will have less money to save. That will mean less investment, which will translate into slower productivity growth and sluggish income progress, making it ever harder for the fewer workers to support the pensions of more seniors.

China will face similar challenges. Thanks to its notorious one-child policy, it has the world’s most rapidly aging population: between 2005 and 2020, the number of Chinese aged 65 and over will grow by 65 percent. China does not offer much government support for its elderly, which may lead to unrest, particularly among seniors living in urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai.

The United States faces a more encouraging demographic future. To be sure, it will need to make adjustments and reform its entitlement programs. But America has maintained higher fertility rates than the countries of Europe and Japan, and its population has been rejuvenated by two generations of high immigration.

Between 2008 and 2020, globalization will continue spreading prosperity around the world, expanding consumer choice, and intensifying competition throughout domestic markets. Over the past 30 years, trade and investment between countries has expanded twice as fast as the total growth and investment of all individual countries. Developing countries are now able to attract the capital to build modern factories and businesses.

Globalization will also transform services, which represent two-thirds of advanced economies. It is a sign of the times that even lawyers may lose their jobs to outsourcing, with Indian firms such as Pangea3 providing basic legal research and drafting services at (what Pangea3 calls) “a radically low cost.”

In all likelihood, the United States will continue doing well in the white heat of international competition, while the highly regulated economies of continental Europe and Japan will stumble. Barring a departure from open markets, the vast and flexible U.S. economy will remain a magnet for investment that funds innovation, which will ensure that U.S. workers remain among the most productive and highly paid in the world.

As I've been saying, because America is free, we are creative. Because we are creative, we will remain an economic force. Money follows ideas, not commodities. Commodities prices are fixed and only change due to fluctuations in their availability, or due to new ideas on how to use the commodities.

America, with it's seemingly endless creativity, is finding new ways to take advantage of the commodity of labor, and a host of other commodities, which are provided by Globalization.

Additionally, all developing nations will have to outfit themselves with the communications and technological infrastructures to support their entry into the Global Economy. Where will they turn for such infrastructure but America?

Free Speech or Hate Speech? University Sued Over Firing for Anti-Homosexual Article

We read:

"The firing of a college administrator over her criticism of gay rights has sparked a debate about free speech and whether universities have the right to regulate what employees say outside of their jobs. Crystal Dixon filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court seeking to be reinstated to her University of Toledo job, which she lost after writing in a newspaper column that gay rights can't be compared to civil rights because homosexuality is a choice.

"I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims,'" Dixon wrote in an online edition of the Toledo Free Press on April 18. "Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman."

Two weeks later, Dixon was fired as the school's associate vice president for human resources. School officials said her views contradicted university policies, according to the lawsuit. Though Dixon's attorneys say other school administrators were not punished for expressing their opinions, the public university defends its actions.

"We have asserted from the beginning that Ms. Dixon was in a position of special sensitivity as associate vice president for human resources and this issue is not about freedom of speech, but about her ability to perform that job given her statements," university spokesman Larry Burns said in a statement. Dixon did not mention in the column that she worked at the university..

"It comes down to whether you're speaking as an employee of the university or as a private citizen," said Brian Rooney, a spokesman for Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which is representing Dixon. "If you're speaking as a private citizen, your speech is protected." The university would have been within its rights to discipline her if she had stated she was a school administrator, Rooney said. The nonprofit Christian law firm says its mission includes "defending the traditional family and challenging special rights for homosexuals." "Where is the so-called free expression of ideas and tolerance that universities so adamantly defend?" said Richard Thompson, president of the law center.

Source

What the university is saying seems to boil down to a claim that being critical of homosexuality is a sign of bad character. If you believe that the Bible is the word of God, I guess that makes God a bad character too.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

THE SUN CAUSES WEATHER CHANGES

We see below where researchers use sun cycles to predict rainfall fluctuations. Rather a nasty blow to the legions of "scientists" who have attributed recent droughts to global warming

The sun's magnetic field may have a significant impact on weather and climatic parameters in Australia and other countries in the northern and southern hemispheres. According to a study in Geographical Research published by Wiley-Blackwell, the droughts in eastern Australia are related to the solar magnetic phases and not the greenhouse effect.

The study titled "Exploratory Analysis of Similarities in Solar Cycle Magnetic Phases with Southern Oscillation Index Fluctuation in Eastern Australia" uses data from 1876 to the present to examine the correlation between solar cycles and the extreme rainfall in Australia. It finds that the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) - the basic tool for forecasting variations in global and oceanic patterns - and rainfall fluctuations recorded over the last decade are similar to those in 1914 -1924.

Author Professor Robert G. V. Baker from the School of Environmental Studies, University of New England, Australia, says, "The interaction between the directionality in the Sun's and Earth's magnetic fields, the incidence of ultraviolet radiation over the tropical Pacific, and changes in sea surface temperatures with cloud cover, could contribute to an explanation of substantial changes in the SOI from solar cycle fluctuations. If solar cycles continue to show relational values to climate patterns, there is the potential for more accurate forecasting through to 2010 and possibly beyond."

The SOI-solar association has been investigated recently due to increasing interest in the relationship between the sun's cycles and the climate. The solar application offers the potential for the long-range prediction of SOI behavior and associated rainfall variations, since quasi-periodicity in solar activity results in an expected cycle of situations and phases that are not random events.

Professor Baker adds, "This discovery could substantially advance forecasting from months to decades. It should result in much better long-term management of agricultural production and water resources, in areas where rainfall is correlated to SOI and El Nino (ENSO) events."

This paper is published in the December 2008 issue of Geographical Research Vol. 46 Issue 4.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

OBAMA'S CABINET CHOICES REVEAL HE KNOWS HE'S AN EMPTY SUIT

FOX SAID IT, AND THE NYTIMES' BOSTON GLOBE SAID IT, AND THE LIB SEATTLE-POST- INTELLIGENCER SAID IT, TOO: OBAMA'S PICKS WERE HEAVY ON EXPERIENCE AND SHORT ON NEWNESS, CHANGE OR EVEN HOPE.

WHY'D HE DO IT!?

SIMPLE:

OBAMA KNOWS HE'S NOT READY, AND NEEDS ALL THE HELP HE CAN GET.

LOOKIT FOLKS: OBAMA IS A JOKE!

• HIS POP WAS NEVER A CITIZEN. HIS MOMMA SPENT MOST OF HER ADULT LIFE HATING THE USA AD LIVING OUTSIDE THE USA; SHE EVEN DUMPED HER KIDS ON HER GRANDMA SO SHE KID LIVE OVERSEAS.
  

• HE'S NEVER RUN A THING IN HIS LIFE, NEVER HAD A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY PROJECT, EVEN.

• HE'S SEEMINGLY TOSSED UNDER THE BUS NEARLY EVERY LONG TERM FRIEND HE'S EVER HAD. EVEN A LONG TERM PAL HE'S BEEN PALSY-WALSY WITH FOR DECADES - A CONVICTED INFLUENCE PEDDLER AND SLUMLORD.

• AND HE MADE THE BAGMAN FOR THE CHICAGO MACHINE HIS CHIEF OF STAFF.

THIS DOESN'T REVEAL THE CHARACTER OF A MAN READY HAVE THE KST POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT JOB IN THE WORLD.

• AND SOMEWHERE DEEP DPWN IN HIS PHONY BALONEY BONES HE KNOWS HE'S UTTERLY UNFIT AND UNREADY, AND HE'S SCARED SHITLESS. HE'S BEEN ABLE TO FAKE IT UP UNTIL NOW, BUT NOW HE'S LEAP-FROGGED UP TO AN ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL - ONE HE'S FUNDAMENTALLY UNREADY FOR. ONE THAT IS UNDER THE KLEIG LIGHTS 24/7.
  

• AND HE KNOWS THAT NO EASY PROBLEMS NEEDING EASY DECISIONS MAKE IT INTO THE OVAL OFFICE.

• ALL THE EASY ONES ARE ANSWERED LONG BEFORE THEY REACH THE WHITE HOUSE'S INNER SANCTUM.

• AND NATIVE INTELLIGENCE ALONE CAN'T MAKE MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS; IF INTELLIGENCE ALONE COULD, THEN WE'D ELECT A SUPER-COMPUTER.

• NOPE.

• WE'RE REALLY IN FOR IT IT FOLKS.

• CUZ EVERY ONE OF THESE SMART, EXPERIENCED DC HANDS IN OBAMA'S CABINET WILL MOST LIKELY GIVE HIM DIFFERING ADVICE - AND MOST OF IT WILL BE PASSABLY "GOOD" - FROM THEIR IDEOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT.

• AND OBAMA IS GONNA HAVE TO CHOOSE.

• I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN HIS ABILITY TO CHOOSE OR DECIDE WISELY.

• THERE'S NO EVIDENCE HE CAN DO THIS AT ALL.

• AND HIS CABINET PICKS PROVE HE DOESN'T HAVE CONFIDENCE HE CAN EITHER.

STUPID QUESTION: WHO PERP'ED MUMBAI, L-E-T OR AQ OR ISI?

VIA GVDL.

A LOOK AT TODAY'S EERILY SIMILAR STOCK INDEX CHARTS

THIS WAS TODAY'S S&P 500:


THIS WAS TODAY'S DJIA:


THIS WAS TODAY'S NASDAQ:


EACH OF THESE INDEXES HAVE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MAKE-UPS, YET THEY MOVED IN COMPLETE LOCKSTEP TODAY.

THIS HAS HAPPENED A LOT LATELY. AND IT TRUE OF MANY REGIONAL INDICES OVERSEAS, TOO.

• I THINK ITS A REFLECTION OF THE EMOTIONAL NATURE OF THE CURRENT MARKETS AND NOT THE UNDERLYING VALUE OF ANY PARTICULAR STOCK - OR INDEX.

• IT PROVES MOST PEOPLE - AND TRADERS AND FUNDS - ARE STILL IN PANIC MODE, REACTING TO BROAD NEWS AND RUMORS AND NOT TO MARKET SPECIFIC OR EVEN MARKET-SEGMENT SPECIFIC NEWS. AND ESPECIALLY NOT COMPANY SPECIFIC NEWS.
  

• IT'S TIME FOR THIS PANIC TO STOP.

• HERE'S WHY:

• MANY GREAT PUBLIC COMPANIES ARE NOW TRADING AT HISTORICALLY LOW P/E RATIOS.

• AND IF RECENT ANALYSIS IS CORRECT, THEN WE ARE ALREADY 1 YEAR INTO THIS RECESSION.

• WHICH MEANS WE ARE AT MOST A YEAR AWAY FROM RECOVERY.

• EMPLOYMENT MIGHT LAG, BUT STOCK PRICES WILL NOT - SO IF YOU'RE WAITING FOR UNEMPLOYMENT TO STOP RISING, OR GO DOWN, BEFORE YOU INVEST, THEN YOU'RE GONNA MISS THE BOAT.

• STOCKS MIGHT GET CHEAPER - THEY MIGHT NOT; EITHER WAY, THE VALUE OF MOST GOOD STOCKS TODAY IS GOOD ENOUGH IF YOU CAN BUY & HOLD.

MIRACLE IN ALBANY: BLIND GUV SEES... ER UM A REASON TO RAISE TOLLS, FARES AND TAXES!

GOVERNOR PATERSON IS LEGALLY BLOIND. AND THESE'RE HIS WORDS, NOT MINE...

NYTIMES:

Gov. David A. Paterson on Wednesday said for the first time that he supported a financial rescue plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that includes charging tolls on bridges over the East River and Harlem River. The plan, the governor said, would substantially reduce the size of a fare increase the authority had sought.

The governor also spoke favorably about a recommendation in the plan for a tax on company payrolls in the region. The measures are aimed at helping the authority overcome a $1.2 billion deficit next year and a gaping multibillion-dollar hole in its long-term capital budget.

The governor said that he was still reviewing the plan, but added, “I’m quite pleased with what I see so far.”

REPEAT: “I’m quite pleased with what I see so far.” HIS CHOICE OF WORDS NOT MINE.

WHAT DOES HE SEE? SIMPLE:

A RAISE IN TOLLS. A RAISE IN FARES. AND A RAISE IN TAXES.

NO WONDER HE'S PLEASED: IT'S A FRIGGIN' LIBERAL WET TRIFECTA DREAM!

MORE ANTI-CONSERVATIVE/PRO-GRAMSCI SPIN FROM THE NYTIMES: THE ANGLICAN SCHISM OVER A HOMOSEXUAL CLERGY

FRONT PAGE OF THE NYTIMES:

Conservatives to Split Episcopal Church

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN 51 minutes ago

Conservatives disaffected over the ordination of an openly gay bishop are expected to declare that they are founding a rival Anglican province in North America.

The move threatens the fragile unity of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third largest Christian body, made up of 38 provinces around the world that trace their roots to the Church of England and its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This is the first effort to create a province defined by theological orientation, not by geography.

The schism would create two competing provinces on the same soil, each claiming the mantle of historical Anglican Christianity.

THE CULPRITS - ACCORDING TO THE GRAMSCIANS AT THE NYTIMES - ARE NOT THE PEOPLE WHO MILITATED FOR THE CHURCH TO CHANGE IN ORDER TO ACCEPT AN OPENLY HOMOSEXUAL CLERGY, BUT THOSE WHO WOULD HAVE THE CLERGY REMAIN AS IT HAS BEEN FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.

A THOUSAND YEARS.

• THE PRO-HOMOSEXUAL CROWD COULD FORM THEIR OWN CHURCH; NOTHING PREVENTS THEM FROM DOING THIS.

• BUT THEIR REAL INTEREST IS IN DESTROYING THE CHURCH, NOT HAVING THEIR OWN CHURCH BE WHATEVER THEY WANT IT TO BE.

• THIS SAME EFFORT IS OCCURRING IN JUDAISM, WHERE - NOT CONTENT TO BE ABLE TO GET MARRIED BY REFORM RABBIS - THE GRAMSCIAN JEWS RECENTLY FORCED THE USA CONSERVATIVE SECT TO SANCTION HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE, TOO.

• THERE'S NOTHING PREVENTING HOMOSEXUALS FROM WORSHIPPING IN OLD FASHIONED CHURCHES OR CONSERVATIVE SYNAGOGUES. THEY JUST HAVE NO RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCRIPTURE.

A SIN IS A SIN IS A SIN. WHILE MOST OF US SIN, MOST OF US CONSERVATIVES DON'T ASK OUR CLERGY TO PUT A BLESSING ON IT!

THERE'S DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOME SYNAGOGUE MEMBERS EATING TREIF ONCE IN A WHILE IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR LIVES AND SERVING TREIF IN SYNAGOGUE AND DEMANDING THE RABBI BLESS IT.

A REAL IRONY

One thing that may be certain about this upcoming election in Israel: if there's anyone who's going to come out the loser in the race, it looks like Labor will be it.

Surprisingly enough, that's what looks to be the result, that the party of David Ben-Gurion may be on its way to becoming just a mere blip on the radar after this election. They've really stumbled badly ever since Ehud Barak reneged on his agreement to topple the government due to Ehud Olmert's refusal to step down following the corruption charges against him, and now, things are really looking gloomy. In the Jerusalem Post, they say:

Under the shadow of a new poll predicting that the party will win only six seats in the February 10 national elections, almost 60,000 Labor Party members were lining up to vote in Tuesday's primary.

Note: the primaries have been posponed until Thursday, because of an alleged crash in the computer program they wanted to use for voting.

According to a poll published on Monday and conducted by 'Panels Ltd.' for Channel 2, were elections held today, Labor, headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, would crash to only six Knesset seat. Labor won 19 seats in the last election. [...]

Nevertheless, Labor officials were trying to stay positive, and on Monday senior MKs said they were hoping for the best despite the fact that this primary campaign has been characterized by no more than 70-80 supporters at each members' rally.

Six seats, you say? Now that's pretty low for a party that once was able to get at least 40 in many past elections. But that seems to be the case now: they're left with nothing left to sell to the public, not even leftism, which seems to be the only thing they've been good at in the past decade.

Yes, things do look gloomy for the Labor party, which is, perhaps ironically, losing seats to Kadima and Meretz, to name but some other political parties.

Update: here's an op-ed Ynet wrote at least a week ago.

Obama's Plan for Immigration "Reform"

The new administration's Blueprint for Change devotes four pages to most of the political issues it encompasses, but on immigration there are two. But it says enough to know where Obama intends to take the country. Obama opens the section on immigration with an excerpt from a speech he made in 2007 on the Senate floor where he calls for reuniting immigrant families, implying that he believes the United States needs to continue both "chain migration" - whereby immigrants to the United States are allowed to sponsor an almost endless linkage of family members to become citizens - and enact an amnesty.

The amnesty is supposedly needed so that illegal immigrants won't be deported and forced to leave their American-born children behind. Never mind that this really only happens when deportees do not tell immigration officials that they have children here - usually because the deportee intends to return to the United States posthaste. Obama goes on to say, "Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should," signaling a likely increased wave of new legal immigrants.

Further details in the Blueprint bear out those assumptions. Within the first year of his term as president, Obama says he will "revive" George W. Bush's "comprehensive immigration reform," which includes promises to secure the border, fix the "broken immigration bureaucracy," and put "12 million undocumented immigrants on a responsible path to citizenship." The immigration "problem," as Obama sees it, has three main components: the number of illegal aliens has increased by 40 percent since 2000, and every year more than half-a-million new illegal immigrants arrive; the bureaucracy is "broken and overwhelmed," which forces legal immigrants to wait years for applications; and immigration raids, which have increased 10-fold, are ineffective, placing "all the burdens of a broken system" on immigrant families.

Obama doesn't see the problem as the burden that the masses of legal and illegal immigrants are putting on Americans. He ignores the $89.1 billion that Americans shell out in local, state, and federal taxes each year to pay just for the social benefits for the immigrants who have less than a high-school degree (this is the amount above what the immigrants pay in taxes). He doesn't acknowledge the depressed wages of Americans because of increased numbers of job seekers, even as inflation eats away at Americans' earnings, or the welfare paid to Americans who lose their jobs to the immigrants. And he fails to notice that America is brim-full of blue-collar workers. In 2005, 63,000 applicants applied for 2,000 jobs at a new Toyota plant in San Antonio before company officials stopped taking applications after two weeks. Since 2005, our country has hemorrhaged blue-collar jobs. We now have about half as many manufacturing jobs in America as in the early 1950s, yet we have twice the population.

To combat the problem he sees, Obama has proposed a variety of solutions. The first one seems reasonable enough: increase personnel, technology, and infrastructure at the borders and other ports of entry. (But every recent president has promised this, including George W. Bush, and no one has delivered.) Next he proposes increasing the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the country. Obama and Biden say they "realize the need to increase the number of people we allow into the country legally to a level that keeps families together and meets the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill." This was written before the presently high unemployment levels, which the United States has not seen the likes of in decades. (Of course, in the United States the unemployment rate is very misleading, even at the best of times: when someone stops collecting unemployment, he or she is no longer considered to be unemployed. He or she is deemed to have left the workforce. This means that the vast bulk of the country could lose their jobs this month, but in a few months, official figures could show a low unemployment rate.)

The Blueprint continues, saying that Obama will remove the incentives to enter the United States illegally by cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. (Evidently he doesn't believe that free schooling, free healthcare, and other social services funded by taxpayers are incentives to illegal immigrants because these are not mentioned.) On his campaign website he points to a proposal he championed in the Senate to create a "new employment eligibility verification system so employers can verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S." Also on the agenda for immigration is a plan to bring undocumented workers "come out of the shadows." The illegals will pay a fine, learn English, and supposedly "go to the back of the line" for the opportunity to become citizens. Since the illegals will be allowed to live and work here legally in some manner until they are made citizens, one wonders how they are now at "the back of the line."

Obama dedicates part of his Blueprint for Change to his record on the issue to show that he is serious about combating the "problem." He starts by pointing out that during the most recent immigration debate, "Obama was a leader in seeking common-sense balanced immigration reform." While in the Senate he supported amendments that would have "prioritized keeping families together" and would have "held employers who hire undocumented immigrants responsible." He also apparently "pushed Congress to find common ground." He purports to have helped "fix the bureaucracy," by joining with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, to introduce the "Citizenship Promotion Act" to "ensure that immigration application fees are both reasonable and fair." He also "introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of FBI background checks." His last headline in the section on his record is entitled "Respect families." In it, he reiterates that he has introduced amendments to "put a greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together."

But what is in Obama's Blueprint only tells part of the story. On December 4, 2007, he told NPR that after illegal aliens pay their fine and get on his "pathway," "they can then stay here and they can have the ability to enforce a minimum wage that they're paid, make sure the worker safety laws are available, make sure that they can join a union." He also voted to let illegal aliens participate in Social Security, and he has consistently supported amnesty, including voting in favor of the DREAM Act in 2007, which gives citizenship to young illegal immigrants who go to college in the United States or join the U.S. military.

Source


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here