ALL NEGATIVE?

This blog is obviously open to the accusation that it is all negative: All I do is endeavour to strip Leftism naked without saying anything much about the conservative alternative. That is largely true. Most conservative bloggers are highly negative, in fact. With the universities, the media and the bureaucracy so chock-full of Leftists, there is a lot that needs attacking. There are heaps of conservative bloggers, however, and some spend more time than others setting out a conservative position. See my Sabertooth friend in California, the Swordsman of England, Australian Scott Wickstein and my pugnacious New Zealander friend, as just some instances. And for wry humour there is always the Bunyip. I do however on some occasions myself attempt to define and promote conservatism -- as you will see at the end of my paper here. I also once -- in 1974 -- wrote a whole big book defining and promoting the conservative viewpoint in ways accessible to both my fellow academics and to the general public. It was called �Conservatism as heresy� and may still be findable through Ebay or the like.

One other interesting attempt I have seen at looking at what it common to the various brands of conservatism is here at the new website of Australian Whig philosopher, Rafe Champion. Careful, though: Philosophy needs readers with time to mull things over!


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


BLACK SELF-ESTEEM

A few bloggers have recently noted with some satisfaction the �discovery� by the NY Times that self-esteem is not the psychological 8th wonder of the world that California in particular thought it was. The NY Times reports rightly that high-self esteem can in fact be associated with a whole range of anti-social behaviours. I myself argued against the self-esteem gospel some time ago (See towards the end of my paper here).

One little known aspect of the self-esteem research NOT mentioned in the NY Times is that US blacks generally are found to have high self-esteem. This finding is actually a big deal -- as it undercuts one of the pillars of Leftist support for the abomination known as �affirmative action� (i.e. anti-white racism). The big argument was that Africans suffer a psychological �burden� because of their slave origins so need measures to boost their self-esteem and get them to achieve. Now that it has long been clear that their self esteem does NOT need boosting, we can no doubt expect a withdrawal of Leftist support for affirmative action can we? Not flaming likely!

The whole argument was an utter nonsense from the start anyway. Like many Australians, I am a WHITE person whose ancestors came to my country chained up in the holds of ships. I am descended from two British convicts who were transported to Australia for minor crimes. I even know the names of the ships they came in. But did that impose an awful psychological burden on me? I think you can guess the answer. And I suppose that several millennia of persecution imposes a terrible psychological burden on Jews and makes THEM unable to achieve too??? But Leftists never do care about evidence or logic!


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

AIR HIJACKS

Libertarian Eric Raymond can certainly think outside the box. His solution to airline hijackings is not only to arm the pilots (now happening) but to arm the passengers as well! It may not be as silly as it sounds. Anybody who pulled a gun or any other weapon in an airliner would certainly end up very dead very rapidly under such a system.

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

IRAQ

Anybody who thinks that President Bush has any choice over Iraq needs to step into Prof. Volokh�s time-machine.