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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

I got the following figures about convicted burglars from an email by Iain Murray (of England's Sword). He extracted them from "Crime and Justice in the United States and in England and Wales, 1981-96" by Patrick Langan of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and David Farrington of Cambridge University:

Months served before release:

England
1981 6.3
1987 6.6
1995 6.5

USA
1981 17.1
1988 18.9
1994 18.0

The fact that the US could afford to keep its villains �inside� for three times as long would have protected its people from the villains concerned for three times longer. Nice. One would think that longer sentences would have a greater deterrent effect too.

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CHINESE RACISM

Lots of people are now identifying China as being in a Fascist phase and a belief in your country�s national distinctiveness and excellence is integral to Fascism so this post from Oxblog is highly relevant. It both confirms the racism of the present Chinese leadership and ridicules it.

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SLAYING THE GREEN MONSTER

Miranda Devine believes that people might be waking up to how irrational and dishonest Greenie activists usually are. Let�s hope she is right.

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ANTI-GLOBO LOGIC

About prominent French anti-globo, Jose Bove:

Activists have hailed Bov� as a leader of the fight against globalization ..... I've always found this absurd. Bov�'s decision to attack the MacDonald's in the first place was due to a U.S. decision, during a typical trade spat with the EU, to raise tariffs against French luxury goods. This had a devastating impact on Bov�'s livelihood, as "someone who supplies sheep's milk to makers of Roquefort cheese," according to the New York Times. In other words, the initial incident that triggered Bov�'s "protest" was a lack of globalization, not its acceleration. The fact that Bov� and other protestors concluded that the cure for Bov�'s ills was to halt the free flow of goods and services across borders even further is a testimony to the blinkered logic of the anti-globalization movement.

Quoted from Daniel Drezner

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BAD EAGLE

I haven�t given "Bad Eagle" a plug for a while. He is a conservative American Indian (NOT an Indian-American) who has been up in arms lately about how people are trying -- in the name of political correctness!! -- to erase the memory of the �Red Indian� in US history.

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BANNING MUSLIM DRESS

For the benefit of my readers outside Australia, I thought I might mention that the most prominent politician of our Christian Right -- the Rev. Fred Nile -- has just called for Muslim women in Australia to be banned from wearing the Chador -- on the grounds that it could be used to conceal bombs and explosives. This caused the uproar that was to be expected and -- after an initial hesitation -- our conservative Prime Minister (John Howard) rejected the call. I suspect however that Fred�s call will win him a lot of votes at the next election -- even from non-religious Australians.

I doubt that the risk is high enough for Fred�s call to be implemented but I understand those who ask why we should pussyfoot around with Muslims when they subscribe to a religion that preaches hatred of us �infidels�. If you want to send Fred a message, his website is here. I met Fred myself some years ago and found him to be a most reasonable and pleasant man.

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SOURCES OF FREEDOM

A few people have commented on this interesting article by Jonah Goldberg here. He argues that we are now under so much government restraint (by way of laws and regulations) because most traditional sources of restraint on antisocial behaviour -- morality, customs, religion etc. -- have ceased to have much effect. He also argues that despite the unending hailstorm of regulation coming from our lawgivers, prosperity and technology have made us more free than at any other time in history. He has a point.

If I were British or if I were a US university student, however, I would be less sanguine. You can get put in jail in Britain just for saying "Muslims are scum" and saying the same in many American universities could have you in a whole heap of trouble too. And in Britain the rising tide of crime makes people much less free to go and do normal things whenever they want -- unless they want to be a crime victim. Going for a walk after dark in many parts of London, for instance, would be most unwise. The British government seems to be keener to stamp out political incorrectness (i.e. Leftist incorrectness) than they are to stamp out assaults and robberies.

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