NICK O'TEEN

My post yesterday about the sometimes benign effects of nicotine drew a few responses. Here are the two most interesting:

"Nicotine blocks re-uptake of dopamine in the brainstem. It is also a powerful respiratory stimulant and bronco-dialtor. If you were'nt inhaling a mess of other junk along with it, it might be helpful for asthma and emphysema. I have a friend who treats only Parkinsons Disease. He maintains that cigar smokers delay the onset of parkinsonism until they've died of something else. He himself smokes three Churchills a day."

Blocking dopamine re-uptake is how some antidepressants work, of course. High levels of dopamine make you feel cheerful.

"Prof. Rodu (see here and here) reports the low risks of smokeless tobacco products: "The results of our analysis reveal that the average remaining life expectancy of a 35 year old nonuser of tobacco is 45.96 years, which is 0.04 year more than that of an smokeless tobacco user. The reduction in life expectancy of a smokeless user amounts to 15 days and is in sharp contrast to a reduction of 7.8 years experienced by the smoker. Thus, the 35 year old tobacco abstainer and smokeless tobacco user will both live on average to be 80.9 years of age compared with 73.1 years of age for the smoker. Only 67% of smokers will be alive at age 70 compared with over 87% of smokeless tobacco users and nonusers of tobacco.""

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

Whoopi Goldberg: obscenities, Chevy Chase, Hollywood and moral stupidity The pathological behaviour of Hollywood celebrities, particularly Whoopi Goldberg, at Radio City Music Hall was like an Orwellian hate session
John Edwards - will the real one please stand up What the partisan media is not telling the public about John Edwards
Iraq War: The New York Times slimes President Bush The New York Times' Maureen Dowd maliciously lied about President Bush and the Iraq war
Rupert Murdoch: the Bush Presidency & a leftist myth One leftwing myth has it that Rupert Murdoch is in the pocket of President Bush. The alleged evidence for this is the way 'Fox' reports the news

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Yes. I know it's Bastille day. The real birthday of Communism. The French revolution gave us the first Communist regime of modern times and then Napoleon gave us the first Fascist regime. How cultured the French are! And what high principles they follow! And if you need any proof of the moral corruption and cowardice of modern-day France, read this report of their everyday indifference to gross antisemitism.

If you have not yet read the talk by Haim Harari on the Islamic problem, you really must. It is here, among other places. It is the most realistic and level-headed account I have read. Harari is an eminent Israeli scientist. Just one tiny excerpt on suicide bombers: "The actual murderer is called "the military wing", the one who pays him, equips him and sends him is now called "the political wing" and the head of the operation is called the "spiritual leader". There are numerous other examples of such Orwellian nomenclature, used every day not only by terror chiefs but also by Western media."

The pervert church again: "Two leading officials at a Catholic seminary in Austria have been identified in an investigation into alleged sexual abuse of student priests and the possession of pornographic and pedophile material. The worldwide scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse aimed at practicing priests within the Catholic Church has surfaced in Austria after pictures of senior church officials caressing and kissing student priests at a seminary were published in an Austrian magazine."

While others are pulling out: "Australia is to send more troops to Iraq. Defence Minister Robert Hill said an extra 30 troops and six armoured vehicles would be sent to boost protection of forces already in Iraq."

Osama bin Laden's sister-in-law has given a rare insight into the notorious terror leader, his extensive family in Saudi Arabia and life inside the secretive Middle East state. In an interview on the eve of a visit to the US to promote the book, to be published next Wednesday, she describes bin Laden as a man so driven by his beliefs that he would deny a water bottle to his infant son in the heat of the Saudi desert, insisting his wife use a spoon. "It's certainly possible that Osama retains ties to the royal family, too," she said. "The bin Ladens and the princes work together, very closely. They are secretive and they are united. They have been inextricably linked for many decades through close friendships and business ventures."

This kindly pastor is doing all he can to keep the fires of black anger burning: "These Black people are often misled, thinking African-Americans are free. But the perceived freedom is not real, says Todd. "You're free to eat at hotels you can't buy. You're free to eat at restaurants you can't buy. You're free to elect politicians who don't represent you. You're free to put your money into banks that won't give you loans. There's something about us. We like counterfeits. We like fakes.""

Look who's talking: "It is amusing to hear Washington liberals lament that all civility in political discourse is lost upon hearing vice-president Cheney tell the Senate's most notorious partisan, Vermont Senator Pat Leahy, Democrat, to 'F*** yourself' during the annual Senate photography session. Lost in scandalous thought over this, the media tsk-tsk's the raging flames of incendiary hate set in every medium by raving segments of the Democratic Party while it decries the minor flair-up in the oft-times cynical United States Senate."

Egyptian Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, "spiritual leader" of Egypt's bloodstained "Muslim Brotherhood" and a defender of Palestinian suicide bombers, is rather pathetically portrayed as a "moderate" by The Guardian . The London-based Iranian Communists give a very different view of him. See here. Genuine Islamic moderates do exist, but Qaradawi is not one of them.

Michael Darby has just come out of hibernation to put up a big post on the latest developments in the Iraqi weapons saga -- with particular reference to the implications for Australia.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Leftism is more popular with young people than with older people largely because Leftism is itself juvenile: They criticize what they don't understand. Which makes it ironic that "We know best" and "It's for your own good" are the basic Leftist messages. Leftists have never got past the simplistic thinking or the arrogance that are the characteristic limitations of youth

"Created" equal in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is a religious way of saying that people are NOT equal but start out with the same rights.

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