CHINA

Fighting China's silicon curtain Numerous efforts are under way in the West to help Chinese web users get around China's censorship of the internet

China does have some conservative traditions: "Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised political rulers to rule with the lightest touch: Administer the empire by engaging in no activity. The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world, The poorer the people will be. The more laws and orders are made prominent, The more thieves and robbers there will be. Therefore the sage [ruler] says: I take no action and the people of themselves are transformed. I engage in no activity and the people of themselves become prosperous."

Christopher Lingle's review of "EAST AND WEST: China, Power, and the Future of Asia", by Christopher Patten: "Patten exposes the proponents of "Asian values" as apologists for authoritarian rule. He stresses that it is inappropriate to attach regional adjectives when discussing essentially universal human values and human (individual) rights. Such references only reinforce racial divisiveness and do little to enhance our understanding of how Asia's economies have developed"

Autocratic Ghosts and Chinese Hunger" by Bryan Caplan: "Only twelve years into his thirty-year reign, Mao Zedong surpassed Joseph Stalin as history's leading mass murderer, according to evidence released recently by the People's Republic of China."

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ELSEWHERE

SPAM: Those sad and jealous souls who hate Microsoft are not going to want to face this but Microsoft do a brilliant job of blocking spam. I have two main email boxes that I use -- with Yahoo and Hotmail. But the address that I use all the time and which has for years been plastered up in many places on the internet (I have around 500 files online) is the Hotmail one. So which one gets the most spam? The Yahoo one by far. Both Yahoo and Hotmail let very little junk though to my main inbox (less than ten emails a day in both cases) but I get at least 100 emails a day in my Yahoo junk-mail inbox. I just empty the box without looking at them. In my Hotmail junk-mail inbox, by contrast, I get around a dozen emails in one day -- few enough for me to at least scan the subject line before I delete the lot. And I have rescued quite a few genuine emails by being able to scan them first. So the number of junk emails that Microsoft block without my seeing them at all must be enormous. They are obviously very confident in and very successful with their spam-blocking algorithms and procedures these days. So I think the cure for spam has already arrived: Get a Microsoft Hotmail box. May Google-mail be as good.

The New York Times agrees with President Bush!: "The Arab world's need to defy Washington and revile Israel is not a valid excuse to perpetuate medieval autocracies and repressive dictatorships. The claim that the Middle East is somehow immune to democracy, whether through tradition, history or religion, is equally spurious. Striking evidence of this was provided by a gathering of Arab intellectuals and nongovernmental organizations at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in mid-March. The statement they issued is a ringing proclamation of universal democratic values and the urgent need to spread them through the Arab world."

Washington DC surprises no-one: "The report card, required by the No Child Left Behind Act, indicates that most of the District's schools have fallen way short of national standards in math and reading in the 2002-03 school year. In fact, 83 of 151 schools tested failed to make adequate progress on last year's standardized tests"

Dumbed down teachers: "Despite the exalted rank implied by the term 'National Board Certified,' the content knowledge required of K-12 teachers who want to earn such a title through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is only that of an advanced high school class, according to a recent commentary published in the Teacher College Record under the title, 'National Board Certification of Teachers: A Billion Dollar Hoax.'"

A good comment from a reader on the large Muslim presence in Europe: "These "kind and gentle Europeans" who just can't deal with violence because "peace" is morally superior - have let Muslims take the place of the Jews that were expelled or killed -- not a good trade, considering the declining economics of Muslim communities as compared to the thriving economies of Jewish "Ghettos" both before and after the Holocaust. I don't believe "God did it", but if I did, I would believe that God replaced the expelled Jews with Muslims to punish the Europeans for their ancestors' sins".

Don't believe this hype about OPEC oil cartel being good for the economy by 'stabilising prices'. It in fact is a major reason why the price of motor fuel fluctuates so much.

Weaselteeth has a good human interest story about a very large man.

Some excellent quotes about the old Soviet system. One example: "Stalin famously said: "Death solves all problems. No man, no problem.""

Doctors flee Illinois: "In key Illinois counties -- including Madison, which has become infamous as perhaps the most plaintiff-friendly venue in the United States -- doctors, hospitals, and some local elected officials are warning of a medical system collapse. They are taking their warning and a plea for tort reform to the most powerful voters in the state: the elderly, who are also the biggest health care consumers."

We don't hear much about one of the Arab world's largest countries -- Egypt -- a country that receives billions in American aid and would probably starve otherwise. So are they appreciative of America? Anything but. If you want to read the most obscene anti-American propaganda, read this summary of what appears in the Egyptian media. Americans just make fools of themselves by supporting these poisonous loonies.

The Atlantic has just heard about Edmund Burke: "Edmund Burke understood before anyone else that revolutions devour their young -- and turn into their opposites"

There is just no need for government financed sport stadiums "privately financed sports stadiums pay for themselves"

My recipe today is for Keema -- curried mince (ground beef). See here.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

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