SOME ECONOMICS

GWB's tax cuts: "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday that Bush's three rounds of tax cuts helped ensure the 2001 recession was mild and brief and have provided critical stimulus to keep the economy on track. In other words, the Bush tax cuts are the engine that have powered today's recovery."

How outsourcing creates jobs for Americans: "Though the pace of U.S. job creation has quickened recently, some 'Benedict Arnold' companies are still being criticized for outsourcing work from the United States to other countries. U.S. manufacturers have outsourced operations to countries such as China to lower wage costs and escape from high taxes, burdensome government regulations and intransigent unions at home. For similar reasons, service jobs in information technology (IT) are outsourced to India. Less well known, though, is that increased economic globalization has caused jobs to move to the United States as well as away from it."

Ten recurring economic fallacies: "As an American historian who knows something of economic law, having learned from the Austrians, I became intrigued with how the United States had remained prosperous, its economy still so dynamic and productive, given the serious and recurring economic fallacies to which our top leaders (political, corporate, academic) have subscribed and from which they cannot seem to free themselves -- and alas, keep passing down to the younger generation."

Good explanation! "Special interest politics is a simple game. A hundred people sit in a circle, each with his pocket full of pennies. A politician walks around the outside of the circle, taking a penny from each person. No one minds; who cares about a penny? When he has gotten all the way around the circle, the politician throws fifty cents down in front of one person, who is overjoyed at the unexpected windfall. That process is repeated, ending with a different person. After a hundred rounds everyone is a hundred cents poorer, fifty cents richer, and happy."

A flying pig!: "Australian farmers are on the cusp of a $70 billion trade victory as negotiators edge close to an agreement to abolish farm subsidies across the US and Europe.... "What they are looking at is the possible abolition of all subsidies for agriculture," Cattle Council president Keith Adams said. "It's really been the last 24 hours that have seen the ground shift."

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ELSEWHERE

Can you beat this for a dumb headline on Yahoo news: "Edwards to slam GOP in convention speech". What the hell did they THINK he was going to do?

What a laugh! The haters speak. Leftist "projection" again: "Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards called on Americans on Wednesday to reject what he denounced as the Republicans' "hateful, negative politics" and embrace John Kerry and his "politics of hope.""

In case you have not seen it yet, here is a link to the "censored" Ann Coulter column about the Democrat convention -- together with final proof that Leftists are humour-impaired. It must be a miserable life being a Leftist -- nothing satisfies; all is complaint.

Far-out Dems: "Democrats filling the hotels, sidewalks, cafes, bars and restaurants of Boston and swarming through the FleetCenter this week have a message they desperately want the rest of America to hear. We are not liberal... Unfortunately for them, the Boston Globe published a poll of delegates to the convention. What they found was a group of individuals whose beliefs on a wide range of issues differ greatly from those held by most Americans: 62 percent support gay marriage, and 83 percent support civil unions. At the time the Iraq War began, 80 percent opposed it. Today, 95 percent do. 86 percent think the United States is not winning the War on Terror. 89 percent support laws to restrict the availability of firearms. These are not mainstream American views, which is why the Democratic Party has gone to great lengths to control the message and the messengers."

Animal Lib loon: "An 18-year-old man has admitted to setting fire to an animal science facility on the Brigham Young University campus on behalf of a militant animal-rights organization, according to court documents made public Monday. Harrison David Burrows appeared Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court.... Combined, the charges carry a minimum 35-year prison sentence and a maximum 50-year term. BYU Police Chief Larry Stott on Monday praised the prosecution against Burrows, saying he hoped it would stop the attacks on the farm. Stott said the farm houses llamas, goats and rabbits used in "basic feed experiments" that do not harm the animals. "It really does not make a lot of sense to attack that area," he said. "Animals are not being mistreated there."

House nigger? "Q. What do you call a black conservative who works for the Bush Administration? A. A house nigger! Ha-ha-ha! Now pass the cornpipe, paw. Where would you expect to find such a joke? Why, in the Washington Post, of course."

Black sheep: "As a black American who's adopted conservatism, I'm fully aware that this particular commentary is going to spark more than its share of controversy. But I've grown exasperated with the incessant outpouring of half-truths, toxic rhetoric, and outright lies told to black Americans and especially about black conservatives by the NAACP."

Indeed: "Wealthy nations and international organizations, including the World Bank, spend more than $55 billion annually to better the lot of the world's 2.7 billion poor people. Yet they have scant evidence that the myriad projects they finance have made any real difference, many economists say."

A good satirical comment here about an American cyclist winning the Tour de France. I suspect that a certain cycling philosopher might approve.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again. Take no notice of the wacky categories Jeff Doolittle has provided.

Eugene Rants has up a tribute to Australia's most admirable security guard.

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

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Puzzle: Leftists always say that human nature is fundamentally good and that people can be trusted. So why do they say that whilst at the same time wanting to regulate everybody to death and take as many decisions and choices out of the hands of the individual as they possibly can? Easy: They say that about human nature because, if it is true, then THEY are good at heart and can be trusted -- and, given their destructive deeds, they need all the propaganda help they can get in that regard.

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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