RACE RELATIONS

Arguing for immigration restrictions seems to be no longer politically incorrect in most of the West. Was this change a result of fresh thinking or maybe the fact that unemployment is now no longer mainly a blue collar phenomenon? When professors start getting the sack anti-immigration politicians like Australia's Pauline Hanson may become heroes to the intelligentsia.

Booker T. Washington knew the only road to black advancement: "In reading Booker T. Washington's words, I found someone who inspired me with both his actions and his character. His emphasis on rejecting coercion of others, and relying instead on self-improvement and voluntary arrangements is exactly what we, as parents, try teach our children today, regardless of race"

"Acting black", the pop culture celebration of underclass norms, is hurting black children

Steve Sailer says ethological researchers have confirmed that people are more charitable to their own ethnic group. Multiculturalism and the welfare state are on a collision course. This may explain why during the 20th century relatively homogeneous Scandanavia was able to build a welfare state, where melting pot America baulked. British leftist David Goodhart bucked from the leftist establishment when he argued that increasing diversity in Britain was undermining the communal consensus needed for welfare.

R J Stove on the Australian Left's failed fatwa against distinguished conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey: "Debate is once again permitted on the role of immigration in Australia". Some leftist critics of Blainey have accused him of spending so much time studying the 19th century that he has adopted 19th century ideas. Considering the gory mess various forms of leftism made of the 20th century, this is really a back-handed compliment! To sample some of the depth of Blainey's thinking a good place to start is his 2001 Boyer lectures

The Australian Labor Party is moving away from the dream of Aboriginal self government. See here. As Keith Windschuttle has pointed out, the majority of Australian Aborigines have voted with their feet against the separatist agenda pushed by a self interested minority. After 20 years of failure it looks like the lessons are finally being recognised. Of course conservatives have always been skeptical of so-called "self governing agencies" (like the Aboriginal organization) that dispense monies extracted from the general taxpaying public with a minimum of taxpayer control over their distribution. The problems of corruption, incompetence and ineffectiveness they have generated could have been easily predicted by any 18th or 19th century classical economist. And of course Aboriginal welfare bodies and their ilk reverse the old revolutionary and classical liberal idea of "no taxation without representation". Many of these so called "progressive reforms" are really reactionary to the core.

Shakespeare was warning against the evils of racism before there were any post-modernists or liberals. The fact that the greatest figure in English literature fought against prejudice makes a mockery of the view that earlier generations were blinded by prejudice "Anti-Semitism and racial prejudice against black Africans are two of the uglier maladies in the history of the West, but in the work of its greatest dramatist we see that these evils are not integral to its civilization, and that in the West's critical spirit lie the means of its continual reform."

The UK government's immigration policy is so crazy that even some British Indians don't like it: "I think the government has lost it. I am a 2nd generation Bradfordian. The number of new faces I see in Bradford city centre - all eastern Europeans has significantly increased over the past few years. I lose over o600 from my pay packet every month in taxes and when I go to the post office I see queues of eastern European queuing for state handouts without having contributed anything to society. Is there any wonder that there is quiet discontent in the country? -- Tendukar Gill" Of course, if they played cricket it might be a different matter .....

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ELSEWHERE

I have just put up here some excerpts from an anti-individual, pro-Green rant by an Australian professor that nonetheless had this good point in it: "The findings fit those of other studies that have shown people for whom "extrinsic goals" such as fame, fortune and glamour are a priority tend to experience more anxiety and depression and lower overall well-being than people oriented towards "intrinsic goals" of close relationships, self-understanding, acceptance, and contributing to the community. These results are, in turn, consistent with other research that shows materialism - the pursuit of money and possessions - breeds not happiness but dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, anger, isolation and alienation. In short, the more materialistic we are, the poorer our quality of life." And that is where capitalism comes in. Because it makes us all richer, it enables us to concentrate more on non-material things instead of spending all our time scrabbling for a living. And anyone who thinks that having gold handles on his car door is the highroad to happiness can only be pitied.

The deceptions attempted by Left-leaning historians are sometimes quite breathtaking. Take this: "Fascism was ultimately born out of, and supported by, conservatism" Any reader of history knows that the founder of Fascism, Mussolini, was a firebrand socialist and Marxist ideologue at the time he developed the Fascist variant of his thinking! For more details of the Leftist history and nature of Fascism, see here.

There is a hopelessly biased article by Alan Wolfe that goes to torturous lengths to explain why an old Nazi philosopher, Carl Schmitt, is popular on the American Left at the moment. One quote: "Schmitt's admirers on the left have been right to realize that after the collapse of communism, Marxism needed considerable rethinking. Yet in turning to Schmitt rather than to liberalism, they have clung fast to an authoritarian strain in Marxism represented by such 20th-century thinkers as V.I. Lenin and Antonio Gramsci. And it hasn't just been Schmitt. Telos, in particular, developed a fascination with neofascist thinkers and movements in Italy". Anybody who knows the historically socialist nature of Fascism and Nazism would find that no surprise.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual wide range of reading all in one place.

I have just put up a gourmet recipe for that good old standby -- Welsh rarebit. 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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