THE CAUSES AND CURES OF ISLAMOFASCISM
Francis Fukuyama has a fairly reasonable article on the Islamic problem in Europe which points to Islamic terrorism as being more the product of Western Leftism than of traditional Islam. No argument there. But his ideas for solving the problem would seem to be good only in theory. His main proposal is that Europe should somehow put into practice the American "melting-pot" idea (which America has now abandoned, anyway). One of my Dutch readers comments:
"Francis Fukuyama's recipe for warding off Islamofascism in Western Europe includes such bromides as "fashioning a national identity that will connect citizens of all religions and ethnicities in a common democratic culture, as the American creed has served to unite new immigrants to the United States."
Well, pish. This is what the Netherlands have done for centuries. They welcomed Jews from Spain and from Eastern Europe, they welcomed Pilgrims from England, Chinese and Moluccans from the East Indies - the list goes on. While expecting everyone to pull their weight in their adopted society, they granted every new group full civil rights. The Islamists of the 20th century got the same deal. The key difference - and this is true elsewhere in Western Europe - is not the lack of "a common democratic culture"; it is the modern welfare state. In Holland, second and third generation Islamic teenagers no longer need to look for work after they finish school. The government will pay them a stipend until they find work - if ever. Thanks to this official generosity the murderer of Theo van Gogh was able to spend his days in a radical Islamist hangout in Amsterdam, to become properly brainwashed for his dirty deed. No need to go out and find a job.
Every radical philosophy of the past - the French revolutionary creed, Communism, Fascism, and whatever the Baader-Meinhof gang believed - was hatched and nurtured not among the oppressed but among the privileged, the people with leisure. "Idleness," as Hippocrates noted, "and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil."
A good summary here of the big problems Western Europe is having with its Muslim population at the moment. Serves Europe right for invading Iraq and supporting Israel! Odd that there are no Muslim riots in the USA!
There is a good historical summary here showing that, despite all the media and Greenie hype, hurricane Katrina was far from being the worst U.S. hurricane in the last 100 years.
How these Leftist teachers hate little kids! "A Tulsa parent is outraged over how her child was disciplined at school for wearing a costume. Crystal Harris says her 5-year old son was forced to take off his costume, and go through the entire school day with only his underwear on. The incident happened Monday at Walt Disney Elementary. School officials acknowledge they have a policy that forbids costumes, and that's why the teacher did what she did. They say they've have apologized to the family. Harris says however the teacher should be disciplined for embarassing her son. Harris' son has not been back to school since the incident, and she says she's considering legal action". [How brave of them to traumatize a 5 year old boy! Their twisted ideologies are all that matters to Leftists, not people]
Crazy EU agricultural policies: "Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose fortune is estimated at €2 billion (£1.4 billion), received €287,308 in subsidies from the European Union Common Agricultural Policy last year. The Prince was given the grants for the 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of farmland he owns in northern France. He is among the 24 biggest recipients of CAP subsidies in France, according to a study by the World Economy Group. Another farmer, who has 1,733 hectares of rice fields, was paid €866,290, researchers found. “The bigger you are, the more you get,” La Tribune, the French daily, stated. “Is it right that European subsidies should be used to fill the accounts of luxury car dealerships in cereal-growing regions?” French farmers received €9.39 billion in European subsidies last year — more than any other country. British farmers received €3.99 billion. Tony Blair has urged reform of Europe’s agricultural policies but President Chirac is resisting him. The Queen received £545,897 in subsidies under the CAP last year and the Prince of Wales received £225,465."
Overspending causes and cure : "Perhaps no issue, outside of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, has angered conservatives more than the growth in federal spending during George W. Bush's presidency. Granted, Mr. Bush began his tenure by effectively slashing more than $1.4 trillion from the government's 10-year revenue projections through his tax cuts. Few of his critics see this as a spending cut, but if those tax cuts had not been passed, that money would have been spent, instead of remaining in the private sector where it fueled investment, job-creation and economic growth. That growth has paid off handsome dividends in the form of increased tax revenues that this year shrank the federal budget deficit by $100 billion. Still, there is no getting around the fact that spending has risen over the last five years, in many areas dramatically. But are the increases excessive or is there a reasonable justification for much of it?"
Bipartisan action on terrorism in Australia: "Police are expected to move within days against a group of terror suspects in Sydney and Melbourne after the Senate rushed through new anti-terror laws yesterday. A group of radical Muslim youths linked to controversial Melbourne cleric Nacer Benbrika fear they will be arrested under the emergency legislation, which received vice-regal assent from Governor-General Michael Jeffery in Sydney last night.... In a special sitting yesterday, the Senate approved government amendments to the criminal code designed to help police arrest people planning a terrorist attack. While Labor backed the changes, the party warned the Government that it expected results. It fears that the publicity of recent days may have prejudiced police operations.... The new law will allow people to be charged with terrorist offences even if they have not decided on a specific target for an attack.... Mr Howard said on Wednesday that he had received specific intelligence which "gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat".
Relentless negativity from the MSM: "What was the most important news out of Iraq last week? That depends on what you consider ''important." Do you see the war against radical Islam and Ba'athist fascism as the most urgent conflict of our time? Do you believe that replacing tyranny with democratic self-government is ultimately the only antidote to the poison that has made the Middle East so dangerous and violent? If so, you'll have no trouble identifying the most significant development in Iraq last week: the landslide victory of the new Iraqi Constitution. The announcement on Oct. 25 that the first genuinely democratic national charter in Arab history had been approved by 79 percent of Iraqis was a major piece of good news. It confirmed the courage of Iraq's people and their hunger for freedom and decent governance.... But that isn't how the mainstream media saw it. Consider The Washington Post. On the morning after the results of the Iraqi referendum were announced, the Post's front page was dominated by a photograph, stretched across four columns, of three daughters at the funeral of their father, Lieutenant Colonel Leon James II, who had died from injuries suffered during a Sept. 26 bombing in Baghdad."
For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald
Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.
The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)
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SOME RECENT ARTICLES UP ON ICJS
Anti-Semitic poem wins British prize
Jews and the Jewish Birthrate
An Islamist threat like the Nazis
Where are the good Jews today?
Israel can bank on Australia's support
Where cronies on the left can be found
Osama bin Laden: more media whore than guerrilla warrior
Egyptian Ambassador at Brandeis
Pretoria Calling
More Palestinians killed in internal strife this year
ABC board gets elusive powerbroker
Rulebook for reporting on Israel
War by prejudice from the BBC
Iraq's message to Mr Blair: we still need the troops...
An ABC investigation that could bite
Gaza Speech
When Young Jews Major in Anti-Semitism
Essay on Anti-Semitism
Seeking rationaliy is futile
BBC hangs on the balance
A liberal Bahraini journalist argues that hatred is a general phenomenon in the Arab and Muslim world: "...Hatred in the Arab and Muslim world is a general phenomenon that is not limited only to the Americans. It is possible that the Arabs and Muslims hate each other no less than they hate others... "In the 1990s, over 200,000 citizens were killed in Algeria - most of them by extremist Islamic groups. What was the response of most of the Arabs and Muslims? A mixture of amusement and of presenting justifications for the murderers and terrorists. During those years, the Taliban movement also abused Shi'ites, Azeris, Tajikis, and other minorities, and no one did anything [to stop it]. "In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, occupied it, and expelled its residents. What was the response of the Arabs and Muslims? Nothing. On the contrary: Most Arabs and Muslims supported Saddam... And in 1991, Saddam murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites and Kurds, and most Arabs and Muslims did not condemn it."
Some things need to be "profiled": "Five Muslim football fans were detained and questioned during a game at Giants Stadium because they were congregating near an air duct on a night former President Bush was in the stadium, the FBI said Wednesday. Some of the Muslims said they did not know they were in a sensitive area, and they complained that they were subjected to racial profiling while they were praying"
Long live free Catalonia!: "Plans by Catalonia to achieve greater independence from Spain are set to test the authority of Spain's Socialist Prime Minister. The rich northeast region wants to be called a nation and have greater control over its own taxes, paying less towards poorer parts of Spain. But other regions have condemned the plan, calling on their people to boycott goods and services from Catalonia. The debate leaves Jos‚ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, with a dilemma: whether to honour his election pledges and grant key Catalan coalition partners autonomy from Madrid; or to heed calls from within his own party and try instead to stifle independence claims. Under a statute devised by Catalonia's regional politicians last month, the region would also have more control over police, the judiciary, the prison service, ports and airports. Catalonia would administer European Union funds and Madrid would have to ask permission if international issues affected the region".
Holy Ireland: "The crisis in the Irish Catholic Church over sex abuse deepened yesterday as another diocese revealed figures for the number of priests facing allegations. Fifteen priests have been accused of sex abuse over a fifty-year period in the largest Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland, according to figures released by the Diocese of Down and Connor. The figures come on top of the 21 priests identified in an Irish government report published three days ago on the Diocese of Ferns, Co Wicklow, and the 26 priests facing allegations in the Diocese of Derry. Yesterday the Irish Independent published the details of its own all-Ireland survey, finding that more than 241 priests have been accused of child sexual abuse in the past 40 years".
Big Muslim riots in Paris continuing. (Must be because of the French invasion of Iraq and its support for Israel): "Jacques Chirac called for calm today after six nights of rioting in the suburbs of Paris threatened to spread and ministers argued over the French government's response to the crisis. A total of 34 people were arrested last night after setting fire to 15 cars and clashing with riot police in the poor, crime-ridden suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois to the east of Paris. No one was injured. Police have fought with protesters every night since last Thursday, when two teenagers were electrocuted after running into an electricity sub-station in the mistaken belief that they were being chased by the police. More than 150 fires have been reported, and tensions were increased after police fired tear gas into a mosque".
Taxpayer revolt starts with state bill of rights: "A taxpayer revolt is sweeping the nation with a battle cry for a 'Taxpayers' Bill of Rights.' The latest count finds activists working with legislators in at least 22 states, from Georgia to Alaska, California to Vermont, to enact a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights (TABOR), a tax-and-expenditure limit on state government that requires voter approval of spending over certain reasonable benchmarks. Taxpayers are up in arms because politicians are wasting too much of their hard earned money, and they want it to stop. Taxpayers agree with Armey's Axiom: No one spends someone else's money as wisely as he spends his own."
An amusing story here about the sheer awfulness of the French bureaucracy. After reading it, I don't think that I should ever complain about Australia's bureaucracy again.
AUSTRALIA'S ECONOMIC PROWESS
Which country will have no government debt within a year, contributed the most to help those in need after the tsunami, and was described by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as a "model for other countries", America or Australia? You've guessed it. Australia. For so long simply seen as an adventure playground for gap year students or a breeding ground for sportsmen, Australia has now graduated into the world of big players....
The Australian economy is now in the 15th year of the longest economic expansion in 50 years - perhaps, according to John Howard, the Prime Minister, "the longest since the gold rushes of the 19th century". Today this continent, much of it desert, ranks 53rd in terms of world population, but is the world's 13th largest economy; eighth in the world in income per head from 18th two decades ago.
John Howard (and to be fair, in some areas such as currency deregulation, his predecessor Bob Hawke) practised what he preached: the foundation of a nation's success is economic growth, and that growth is rooted in economic stability, free trade and rewarding hard work and investment. Out went tariff protection. It was no use hiding under the duvet, hoping that the growling Asian tigers on our doorstep would disappear. "Bring 'em on," became the Australian warcry. Down came the national debt and borrowing. Australia's net debt position has fallen from 20 per cent of GDP to 1.3 per cent. And within a year, Australia will have no net government debt at all. Read that again: no debt. Down from $96 billion to zero in a decade....
The burden on the private sector fell, helping it to create more jobs - more than 1.5 million new jobs since 1996 alone. Not bad for a country of just 20 million people. Today, unemployment is at a 30-year low - and inflation is under lock and key despite high oil prices.
Much more here
FROM BROOKES NEWS
What should we expect from Bernanke now that he is the Fed's chairman? : Why Bernanke's policy of stabilizing prices will generate a boom-bust situation
Liberal Party stuffs up its workplace reform arguments against the unions: Why has the Liberal Government failed to persuade the electorate that reform is good? Because disdainful arrogant economic illiterates have been in charge. This article lays out the case for reform by demolishing the unions' argument
How capital gains taxes retard economic growth: Shows how capital gains taxes damage economic growth by sapping investment and punishing success
The Great Depression and the paradox of thrift - another Keynesian fallacy: It is nonsense to claim that the Great Depression was caused by excess savings. The evidence flatly contradicts this view
Scooter Libby v Fitzblooey: a 'crime' against the process: Is it now normal practice for prosecuting attorneys to allege a crime and then set traps to elicit falsehoods upon which they can then indict a target without having to prove a crime was committed?
Iranians boycott regime's anti-Jewish rally: The Iranian regime's vicious anti-Jewish rally was ignored by the vast majority of Iranians
Mugabe unleashes his fanatical thugs against the poor: Mugabe has unleashed his infamous 5th Brigade on the poor. Having learnt well from their North Korean mentors the 5th Brigade murdered, tortured, and raped about 20,000 Zimbabweans in the early '80s
Theodore Dalrymple notes that suicide bombers and other Islamic terrorists are often fairly Westernized. He says that Leftist victim-talk makes them resentful of their failures in our society and Islam gives them an outlet for their anger. But this is definitely a "read the whole thing" article.
A good article here shows that the whole of Islam is complicit in Islamic terrorism. Excerpt: "So, here we are: part of the Muslim community is in the thrall of a totalitarian ideology which turns young Muslims into human bombs. Photos of Muslim and non Muslim civilian body parts flying in the middle of markets, mosques, discos and hotels have become routine. Beheadings of Christian and Jewish men and women are no longer surprising. And what do the ever-silent and passive-defensive Muslim countries, Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League vociferously condemn? They are condemning the publication of cartoons featuring Muhammad in a Danish paper. The absurdity of this action is only matched by its hypocrisy."
An amusing explanation here of how GWB's proposed tax changes would screw the "Blue-staters" who have made themselves his political enemies.
There is what is alleged to be a speech here by a Chinese general that speaks of attacking the United States. Is it just the fantasies of an old man or totally phony? I don't know but maybe we should try to find out. There are a lot of comments here that throw doubt on the story. The "learning from the Nazis" part of the speech does not sound to me like anything any Chinese Communist would say.
A good summary from Dennis Prager: "Judeo-Christian America -- American exceptionalism America -- loves John Bolton, has contempt for the United Nations, mistrusts the World Court, regards Amnesty International as another morally confused leftist organization, thinks little of the world's media and academic elites, and regards "world opinion" as morally confused and left-wing media manipulated. On the other side are those, like the ACLU, who regard even the smallest cross on any county or city seal as a religious threat to the secular republic, who think it America's fault that this country is not highly regarded in public opinion polls from Canada to Germany to South Korea, who passionately opposed John Bolton becoming ambassador to the U.N. because he is highly critical of that institution, and who believe that other nations' laws should be cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions".
Carnival of the Vanities is up right on schedule this week with lots of goodies to read.
RECENT ABORTION RESEARCH
Dear me! There is a lot of nonsense reported in abortion research. As far as I am concerned, abortion is an ethical issue and I have made my view of it clear elsewhere but various medical claims seem to get tangled up in it too. One claim is that women who have abortions are subsequently more depressed, which makes some intuitive sense and appears to be borne out by research. A recent piece of research has challenged that, however, and the BBC gives a reasonable summary of the controversy for the general reader. The abstract of the actual research report concerned is here and you can link from there to the full research report. I confess to not having read the article in full but it seems a rather silly article to me. They report that higher income women are more likely to abort and that such women are typically less depressed -- which rings true. But they apparently fail to control for that in assessing the effects of abortion. They really needed to compare women of SIMILAR income background (or control for income background statistically) in order to assess the effects of abortion. So I don't think we can conclude anything from their study at all.
And there is another study here which reports that women who have had abortions are more likely to become child abusers when they do eventually have children. The inference is that it is the abortion that makes the women more abusive. But isn't it the more obvious conclusion that women who are callous enough to have an abortion in the first place are also the types who would abuse children anyhow? Not all women who have abortions are callous but I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume that there are a lot more callous women among them than in the general population.
THE IRISH FLOODS OF THE YEAR 2000
You can read a little about the floods here and the predictable Greenie comment is here but I think the picture below tells you most of all.
With an enormous effort at self-restraint, I will refrain from making any comparisons.
Australia's major public broadcaster, the ABC, is getting very grand -- with the pride that come before a fall, I fancy. The Managing Director of the ABC has just failed to turn up for a Senate scrutiny of ABC operations -- sending an underling instead.
Targeted terrorist assassinations would spare innocent lives : "When Pat Robertson, the televangelist who once ran for president, suggested that the U.S. consider assassinating Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, he was roundly denounced by voices left and right. Robertson is, of course, known for saying impolitic things. But, based on the breaking news that Chavez is seeking nuclear technology, perhaps Robertson's assessment of the Venezuelan situation was more farsighted than impolitic. The Washington Times recently reported that Chavez is on the offensive, making 'overtures to various countries' including Iran 'about obtaining nuclear technology.' Even more troubling than rumors of the Venezuelan government discussing the obtainment of nuclear technology is Chavez's recent fraternization with Iran's ruling bad boy, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has brought increased pugnacious policy choices in the southern hemisphere."
American and European car-makers both trailing on quality "Toyota, along with its Lexus division, makes more than half of the sedans and small cars that earned our highest Reliability Rating. All the others that earned this Rating were also Japanese, including the Honda Accord and previous-generation Civic; the 2006 Infiniti M35/M45; and nonturbo models of the Subaru Impreza. Most of the worst sedans in our rankings came from Europe, including several expensive luxury models such as the Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar S-Type, and the Mercedes-Benz E- and S-Class. The rest of the bottom-rated small cars and sedans were from domestic manufacturers and included the Chevrolet Cobalt, the V8-powered Chrysler 300C, and the Lincoln LS".
Methodists rediscover the Bible: "In a denomination divided over the role of homosexuals in its ranks, a United Methodist Church court Monday defrocked a lesbian minister and reinstated a pastor suspended for denying church membership to a gay man. The nine-member Judicial Council, the denomination's highest court, released its decisions after hearings last week at Houston's First United Methodist Church Westchase campus. The council ruled that the Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud of Pennsylvania had violated church law that prohibits "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" in the clergy. It also reinstated the Rev. Edward H. Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in Virginia, who had been suspended by his bishop after refusing to add a gay man to the church membership roster."
Reliapundit has a summary of the Muslim riots in Paris -- riots the French rather deserve, in my view. More background on the subject here
Brits still ruling some waves: "Royal Navy snipers shot out the engines of a speedboat carrying £200 million worth of cocaine during a drugs bust in the Caribbean, it was disclosed last night. The operation to intercept and arrest the drug trafficking gang was led by the Type 22 frigate Cumberland and a Lynx helicopter from her support vessel, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Wave Knight. They intercepted the speedboat as it raced across the ocean 100 miles off Nicaragua. The four-strong gang tried to outrun the helicopter but they were forced to surrender after specialist snipers in the Lynx fired bullets to disable the speedboat's engines. A team from Cumberland boarded the speedboat, arrested the crew and seized two tons of cocaine with a street value of £200 million.
I have just put up here a big new lot of postings by Chris Brand on recent events to do with race, IQ etc.
SUITCASE NUKES
One of my nuclear physicist readers has emailed me to offer the following technical correction to the "Suitcase nukes" story in the WSJ's Opinion Journal that I referred to below:
You are correct to note that the suitcase nukes story is bunk and that real suitcase nukes have an extremely limited shelf life - but the Opinion Journal article on why it is bunk gets the physics all wrong. A suitcase nuke has to make use of a small quantity of plutonium with isotopics that are referred to as "super-grade" well above the normal weapons grade level (super grade is around 97% Pu-239 as opposed to 93% Pu-239 for normal weapons grade) - the Pu-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years. The Opinion Journal's explanation of why the suitcase nukes have a limited shelf-life is simply ludicrous.
The real reason is that the nukes themselves operate at extremely fine tolerances and their yield is incredibly dependent upon the absolute perfection of their internal geometries. As the higher isotopes of the Pu decay (most importantly Pu-241 going to Am-241) the heat output of the Pu part of the core changes drastically and the geometry changes slightly - this makes the weapn prone to two problems that are referred to as spalling and jetting. As the weapon itself operates right on the limit of having too little material to give an actual nuclear explosion, any material lost to spalling or jetting will prevent the weapon from going off at all. The steps necessary to remake the suitcase weapon to get back its old yield are at least as complex as building it in the first place.
ARE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE BIGOTS?
The above question is one that has often been asked and the answer has been found to depend on how you define "religious". But generally, psychological research -- such as mine -- has found no association between orthodox Christian beliefs and racial prejudice. That does not suit the religion-hating Leftists at all, however -- as "racist" is one of their handiest terms of abuse. So we find an attempt (under the heading "Authoritarianism, Religious Fundamentalism, Quest, and Prejudice") by the ludicrous "Bob" Altemeyer to salvage something nasty from the situation.
Altemeyer relies in his research very heavily on a scale (set of statements) of his own devising called the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale. As the very name of it implies, it contains a "mixed bag" of statements. Many are worded in a very aggressive and punitive ("authoritarian") way but there are also in the scale statements such as: "National anthems, flags and glorification of one's country should all be de-emphasized to promote the brotherhood of all men" (from p. 305 of Altemeyer's 1981 book). Now how many conservatives would agree with that statement? Very few, I suspect. So agreeing with the aggressive and hostile statements of the RWA scale can get you a high score on it but just rejecting characteristically Leftist statements can also get you a high score on it. So whether any given correlation with the scale arises from its conservative character or its authoritarian character is simply unknowable.
So Altemeyer's failure to recognize that simply being conservative could lead you to get elevated scores on his RWA scale leads him to lots of apparently profound conclusions that are in fact much more parsimoniously (simply) interpreted. For instance, he concludes: "people raised in no religion are apt to be the least authoritarian [conservative] respondents". But all that that finding really tells us is that modern-day North American Christians tend to be conservative. Big news! In a similar vein he supports his assertion that high scorers on his RWA scale [conservatives] are characterized by "deplorable behavior" by showing that they were more supportive of Republican President Richard Nixon and were more opposed to Communists and more dubious about homosexuality. Again: Big news
Anyway, Altemeyer's whole approach is so silly and naive that it does not deserve a full critique so I will simply move on to a few remarks on what he says about religion. His first interesting statement is this one: "For example, in a study of 533 University of Manitoba students tested in the fall of 1987 by Altemeyer, the RWA Scale correlated .48 with a measure of acceptance of Christian beliefs, the Christian Orthodoxy (CO) Scale ( Fullerton & Hunsberger, 1982). It also correlated .41 with a measure of prejudice against most of the minorities mentioned a few paragraphs ago. But CO scores correlated precisely .00 with prejudice". In other words, Altemeyer found what I found 15 year before him (not that he mentions my work) -- that orthodox Christian beliefs have ZERO correlation with racial prejudice.
That pesky finding did not defeat him, though. He went back to the drawing board and came up with his own measure of religious belief -- a "Religious Fundamentalism" (RF) scale, which was essentially a set of statements that were very dogmatic about the truth of religion. And he went on to show (Phew!) that that scale DID show a small (.30) correlation with racial prejudice. But here's the kicker: Altemeyer's scale of religious belief deliberately EXCLUDED all specifically Christian statements of belief! Even an atheist with a passionate belief in flying saucers could get a high score on it! There is a later study here which also used Altemeyer's scales and that study confirms that high scorers on Altemeyer's RF scale (but not Christians) tended to be simple-minded. So once again poor old Alty tried to fudge his data and failed. All he has really shown is that racial prejudice (but not Christianity) tends to be simple-minded.
It may finally be worth noting that my earlier study used a measure of religious dogmatism too (which I called the "religiocentrism" scale) but my scale was specifically Christian in content. And guess what? It too showed NO correlation with ethnic prejudice. So it was only by taking the Christianity out of religion that nutty old Altemeyer could show that religious people were bigots. What a laugh! Only too typical of Leftist psychology, however.
Steve "Finefrock" and his friends have been having fun promenading among the Lefties of Santa Monica wearing pro-Arnie t-shirts. You can guess how much intelligent discussion that elicited from the Lefties! Maybe someone should however tell Steve that "boot" in German is "Der Stiefel", not "Das Boot". But his proximity to Hollywood probably means that he was just joking about a famous submarine movie.
PETA kills animals wholesale: "Hypocrisy is the mother of all credibility problems, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has it in spades. While loudly complaining about the "unethical" treatment of animals by restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans, the group has its own dirty little secret. From July 1998 through the end of 2004, PETA killed over 12,400 dogs, cats, and other "companion animals" -- at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. That's more than five defenseless animals every day. Not counting the dogs and cats PETA spayed and neutered, the group put to death over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003 alone. And its angel-of-death pattern shows no sign of changing.... PETA raked in nearly $29 million last year in income, much of it raised from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals. Instead, the group spends huge sums on programs equating people who eat chicken with Nazis, scaring young children away from drinking milk, recruiting children into the radical animal-rights lifestyle, and intimidating businessmen"
The lies of Edgar Snow: "The new biography Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday shows that every major claim made by Snow was false. Rather than opposing the Japanese invasion, Mao had welcomed it. He hoped the Japanese would engage and destroy his rival, Chiang Kai-shek, and would also draw Soviet troops into China. Mao avoided armed conflict not only with the Japanese but also with the Nationalists. Rather than being a champion of independence for his country, Mao since the 1920s had been an agent of the Soviet Union, taking its arms and money, doing its bidding, and accepting its control of the Chinese Communist Party. He knew his only hope of gaining power in China was with Soviet support, a belief ultimately confirmed in his takeover of the country in 1949. Mao was no agrarian reformer. He redistributed no land and liberated no peasants. His initial "red base" at Ruijin in Jiangxi province, southern China, had been achieved not by a revolutionary uprising of the masses but through military conquest by the Red Army, armed and funded by Moscow. His rule was identical to that of an occupying army, surviving by plundering the local population and killing anyone who resisted".
A pretty reassuring article here explaining why "suitcase" nuclear weapons are a myth.
I have just put up here a review of recent research on the genetics of IQ, civilization and race by Chris Brand.
THE FAR-LEFTISM OF AUSTRALIA'S PUBLIC BROADCASTERS
The following is an excerpt from a letter recently sent by one of my Australian readers to to General Karl Eikenberry, US Army Central Command Iraq and Afghanistan. I have posted the whole of the letter here. And Andrew Bolt has also just put up a mocking story about the bias and distortions of Australia's major public broadcaster
"I would like make you aware that there are two Australian television and radio broadcasters, the ABC and SBS with embedded correspondents in Iraq and Afghanistan who are sending extremely strong anti American propaganda back to Australia. In the case of the ABC, which is now broadcasting into some forty countries in SE Asia, Osama bin Laden and associates could not have a more effective propaganda machine in this region, no matter how much money they paid. Amazingly both these broadcaster are funded by the Australian government which these broadcasters despise.
These broadcasters, staffed by extreme Leftists have a blantant agenda to divide the Australian and regional peoples from America's efforts to win the war on terrorism. Their focus is targeted at any US and coalition setbacks, harm done to civilians, and especially any stories related to torture.in US military prison camps, including Guantanomo.
In fact the ABC ran 57 stories on Iraqi prisoner abuse alone, yet only one on the world's biggest scam featuring the Left's favourite institution, the UN and it's oil for food program, which as you are aware, enabled Saddam to buy weapons that have been, and still are being used to kill coalition forces in Iraq. I have never seen a single program by these broadcasters showing the US in a good light. Even their three stories on Hurricane Katrina were nothing more than hysterical rants against the US Government, and yet, this is the ABC, SBS idea of "balanced reporting"."
Lawmakers call for more illegal-immigrant prosecutions: "Frustrated because they say federal attorneys aren't prosecuting enough criminal illegal immigrants, California Republican lawmakers are seeking a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The 19 GOP members of the California congressional delegation have signed a letter to Gonzales saying many illegal immigrants who are arrested and deserve jail time are instead released because of a lack of resources to prosecute them. "There is one simple reason why 'catch and release' cannot continue: it endangers our citizens," the letter reads. "It is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to punish dangerous criminals who violate federal laws, and this includes criminal aliens."
Criminals discriminated against. How awful! "In what could be a first among municipalities nationwide, San Francisco has adopted a resolution aimed at erasing the stigma faced by felons who apply for public sector jobs. An outgrowth of complaints that job applicants with criminal records are discriminated against when applying for jobs, the nonbinding resolution asks San Francisco's Human Resources Department to consider eliminating the check-off box that asks applicants if they've ever been convicted of a crime. The resolution, which was unanimously passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, quietly passed into law last week without the signature of Mayor Gavin Newsom, a spokesman for the mayor said Tuesday. Newsom wants to "make sure that people who made past mistakes are not discriminated against," said mayoral spokesman David Miree".
Private enterprise fairer than government "Far from existing from time immemorial, as many have assumed, racially segregated seating in public transportation began in the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those who see government as the solution to social problems may be surprised to learn that it was government which created this problem. Many, if not most, municipal transit systems were privately owned in the 19th century and the private owners of these systems had no incentive to segregate the races..... The incentives of the economic system and the incentives of the political system were not only different, they clashed. Private owners of streetcar, bus, and railroad companies in the South lobbied against the Jim Crow laws while these laws were being written, challenged them in the courts after the laws were passed, and then dragged their feet in enforcing those laws after they were upheld by the courts. These tactics delayed the enforcement of Jim Crow seating laws for years in some places. Then company employees began to be arrested for not enforcing such laws and at least one president of a streetcar company was threatened with jail if he didn't comply"
The USSR didn't work because of the USA? : "I argued that in the main in the U.S. people are still required to look out for themselves via voluntary institutions, and this approach to problem-solving is more effective than top-down government management. One panelist responded to this by claiming that, while Cuba (which is ostensibly a socialist dictatorship) and other centralized systems are cruel and mean -- to, say, gays and journalists -- their main problem is the U.S.; this country just will not allow them to flourish. Then he added that this was the problem with the Soviet Union -- countries of the West would not permit its socialist dictatorship to succeed as it would have, had it been left to its own resources."
Bring on the mother of all judicial battles : "It's time to right the wrong that was done to Judge Bork. It's time to use this 'swing' seat to right the direction of the Court. A court which reaffirmed special, rather than equal, treatment of minorities in college admissions. A court which said the government can take away your property and give it to someone else for economic reasons. A court which upheld a congressional law infringing on citizens' right to free speech 30 days before an election. A court which is out of control and out of line. If the President does, in fact, nominate someone like that, the left will be loaded for bear. They're gonna kick like mules and bite like crocodiles. It's gonna be an old-fashioned bar brawl, complete with mud, blood and beer. Oh, what a glorious constitutional fight it will be."
Australian Left tries to woo Christians: "Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has moved to soothe relations between Labor and Christian churches, linking his moral values to the fight against the Government's planned industrial relations laws. He told church leaders that a post-September 11 world had distorted the message of faith in God. The devoutly religious Mr Beazley also criticised a distortion of Christian faith which he said had occurred in the United States. "In the post-September 11 age when religion is at the centre of public fears of terrorism, we must be able to challenge the ugly, violent distortions of genuine faith," he told the Australian Christian Lobby conference in Canberra. ... Mr Beazley did not mention by name former leader Mark Latham - who has bitterly criticised Mr Beazley - but conceded Christians had had concerns about Labor in the lead-up to last year's federal election.... Dealing with questions from the audience on matters such as abortion and homosexuality, Mr Beazley promised Labor would listen to the often silent, religious sector of the community, partly through its caucus faith and values working group, headed by frontbencher Kevin Rudd. ACL head Brigadier Jim Wallace said many Christians did not vote for Labor at the last election because of former leader Mark Latham's public pronouncements that he was not guided by faith".
'Equal protection'? Just protect the Constitution from the Supreme Court
An excerpt from Ben Shapiro
In 1866, when members of the 39th Congress of the United States submitted the Constitution's 14th Amendment to state legislatures for ratification, they would have been stunned to learn that they had just written a provision mandating that homosexual sex be treated on the same moral plane as heterosexual sex. On Friday, Oct. 21, the Kansas Supreme Court, ruling under the Supreme Court precedent of Lawrence v. Texas (2003), decided that the 39th Congress meant just that. A Kansas law penalizing statutory homosexual rape more severely than statutory heterosexual rape was struck down under the 14th Amendment's "equal protection" clause....
As the constituency of the Court has changed, interpretation of the Constitution has changed. The Court has arrogantly enforced its own morality. "Equal protection" is no longer a simple bar against racist law enforcement; it is no longer even restricted to race itself. "Equal protection" now means that any law classifying groups differently must meet the Supreme Court's moral standards. Of course, all laws inherently classify groups differently. Murder laws will classify murderers differently than law-abiding citizens. Such laws have always been constitutional. But members of the Supreme Court must now personally agree that legal classifications meet their own moral standards.
In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), for example, the Court declared that a Georgia statute criminalizing sodomy did not violate the "equal protection" clause. Justice White, writing for the majority, explained, "In 1868, when the 14th Amendment was ratified, all but five of the 37 States in the Union had criminal sodomy laws. In fact, until 1961, all 50 States outlawed sodomy, and today, 24 States and the District of Columbia continue to provide criminal penalties for sodomy performed in private and between consenting adults. Against this background, to claim that a right to engage in such conduct is 'deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition' or 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty' is, at best, facetious."
By 2003, a constitutional right to engage in sodomy had been discovered. What changed between 1986 and 2003 to bring about this reversal? Nothing, except the constituency of the Court. And so the Constitution magically changed. Personal politics of the justices trumped the fully constitutional will of the people. Nothing gives the Supreme Court power to overrule popular legislation wherever it pleases. The Constitution does not grant unlimited power to the Supreme Court. We live in a republic, not an oligarchy. No matter whether the Court considers the law in Kansas abhorrent or praiseworthy, it is none of its business under the Constitution. We must trust the people more than we trust tyrants. Anything less is tyranny.
Why can't those wonderfully wise Europeans get anywhere near this? : "The US economy strengthened in the third quarter, driven higher by strong government and consumer spending, and despite damage caused by hurricanes. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by an annual rate of 3.8% in the three months from July through September, the Commerce Department said. That compares with 3.3% in the second quarter and topped market estimates.... There had been concerns that the cost of rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, coupled with record oil prices, would slam the brakes on growth. It now looks as if the US economy will keep motoring through to the end of the year, analysts said. "This is a very positive, strong report and encouraging because it included Katrina and a spike in oil prices and we still just seem to have a lot of momentum going into the fourth quarter," said Kurt Karl, an economist at Swiss Re.... Friday's GDP report also contained inflation figures that showed a decline in the core level of price growth. Excluding food and energy prices, the core inflation rate was 1.3% during the quarter, down from 1.7% in the previous quarter."
Another economic moron: "Senator Dick Durbin wants to impose a tax on U.S. oil producers, just at the time when they are struggling to get Gulf Coast gas and oil production and refining restored after being hit by two hurricanes. The plan by Senator Dick Durbin would impose a 50% tax on the difference between the market price of oil and a bench-mark of $40 a barrel. The result will be to raise $40 billion or so a year based on a price of $63 per barrel. This will retard the post-hurricane recovery of the U.S. oil industry and put a dead hand on future exploration in the United States. That, in turn, will keep the world price of oil at a level higher that would prevail otherwise and retard domestic economic growth. It will also provide more revenue for foreign producers like Saudi Arabia and Iran. I worry about how that extra revenue will be spent by the sheiks and ayatollahs."
Wal-Mart gets praised for shafting its competition! "H. Lee Scott, Jr., the CEO of Wal-Mart, surprised many by calling for an increase in the minimum wage. And what accolades were heaped on him! The company was even cast in a new role, from the exploiter of workers to the responsible advocate of pro-worker policies. And how selfless, for who has to pay such higher wages but companies like Wal-Mart? And thus do we see a corporation set aside its business interests on behalf of the long-term interests of society. The whole thing befuddled Wal-Mart haters as much as it disgusted its free-market defenders. Ted Kennedy wouldn't go so far as to praise the company, but he did say that 'If the CEO of Walmart can call for an increase in the minimum wage, the Republicans should follow suit on behalf of the millions of working men and women living in poverty.'.... And yet, let us think this through. Might there be another reason Wal-Mart would advocate a higher minimum wage?... The current minimum is $5.15. According to studies, Wal-Mart pays between $8.23 and $9.68 as its national average. That means that the minimum wage could be raised 50% and still not impose higher costs on the company"
Perverted Irish priests: "Twenty-one Irish Catholic priests sexually assaulted young boys and girls in parishes across Co Wexford over a period of 40 years, a damning report into clerical abuse revealed yesterday. The Irish Government said that it would take immediate action to implement the recommendations of the report into the Diocese of Ferns, which is now regarded as the world's leading centre for clerical sexual abuse. The 271-page report catalogues 100 complaints of abuse, with one priest responsible for 26 assaults. The Ferns Report, which investigated allegations dating back to 1966, concluded that Church authorities, the medical profession and society in general failed to appreciate the horrendous damage which the sexual abuse of children causes. The report revealed that police investigations were wholly inadequate, while bishops in the Diocese of Ferns failed to take basic precautions to protect children."
The utter intellectual dishonesty and pure hatred that characterize that mini-Chomsky, Brian Leiter, has once again been exposed for what it is -- this time by Will Wilkinson
Jennifer Marohasy is blogging up a storm these days. Hers is another "Greenie Watch" blog but her focus is mainly on the nuttiness of Australian Greenies whereas I try to take a global view.
The Religious Policeman is a blog from "A Saudi man, currently living in the United Kingdom, where the Religious Police no longer trouble him for the moment". He is pretty scathing about the whole Islamic scene.
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