THE LEFTIST IDEAL IN ACTION

Sweden:

The extent of the failure of the Swedish model are both shocking and little known. For example, no new net jobs have been produced in the Swedish private sector since 1950. (By contrast, the U.S. created more than 60 million new private-sector jobs during the same period, from 52 million in 1950 to about 115 million in 2002.) "None of top 50 companies on the Stockholm stock exchange has been started since 1970."

Again, contrast this with the U.S. where many of our biggest companies had not been born or known of in 1970, such as Microsoft, Intel, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Cisco, etc., Mr. Karlson's litany of failures of the Swedish model include: "Sweden has dropped from fourth to 14th place in 2002 among the OECD countries (i.e., affluent industrialized countries) in terms of GDP per capita since 1970."

In addition, "well over 1 million people out of a work force of around four million did not work in 2003 but lived on various kinds of public welfare programs

More (much more) here

Eurozone:

Signs of shaky economies in France and Germany have sharpened worries about Europe's less-than-robust recovery - and underscored the struggle to shake up regulation-clogged economies in countries that use the euro.....

Private economists, however, point to shadows cast by Germany's rise in unemployment in December to 10.8 percent, and French government statistics showing zero economic growth in the third quarter. Unemployment there remains at 9.9 percent.

Economists expect fourth-quarter growth of 3.5 percent to over 4 percent in the United States, where unemployment was only 5.4 percent in December. Per-person U.S. gross domestic product of around $44,610 (34,100 euros) remains ahead of $30,746 (23,500 euros) for people in the 12 countries using the euro

More here

But there is no room for U.S. complacency:

US policies are falling behind global competitors: "America is losing its status as one of the freest economies in the world. The punitive U.S. tax code, out-of-control spending levels, and onerous regulations are making America less competitive in the international economy. According to the Index of Economic Freedom, the U.S. is no longer one of the top ten freest economies for the first time since the index was started in 1994. The Index, published by The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, found that economic freedom is spreading world wide, with 86 nations receiving better scores. Unfortunately, America's score remained the same while Chile, Australia, and Iceland further opened their economies and surpassed the United States. Currently, the U.S. is tied with Switzerland for 12th place."

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ELSEWHERE

That famous U.S. airport security again. Email from a reader: "A colleague whose husband is a commercial pilot told me this one: A pilot who is certified to carry a gun went through airline security - showed his card, etc.. They let him keep his gun, but confiscated his nail-clippers. The security people said that some terrorist might take them away and use them as a weapon". Even if it's an urban myth, it's probably "fake but accurate".

Fabulous: "The nuclear-powered US submarine that ran aground in the Pacific last week, killing a sailor and injuring 23 others, ran into an undersea mountain that was not on the navy's charts, a US defence official said today.... A senior defence official, who asked not to be identified, said initial reports were that the submarine was cruising at high speed at a depth of about 120 metres on Monday when it ran into an uncharted sea mountain". [Contrast that with the sad fate of Russia's "Kursk". The comparison may not be exact but the U.S. boat survived a catastrophic front-end accident whereas the "pride" of the Soviet fleet did not. Higher safety standards?]

There is an article here showing how successful films and other light entertainment were in Hitler's Germany. Hollywood is Leftist too, of course. But Leftists have to be good at propaganda or they would not survive. Reality (like that described above in Europe) does not suit them at all. The article mentions Nazi themes as "law and order", "national respect", "homeland", "discipline and obedience" without mentioning that they were all Leftist themes in Hitler's time. You can find such themes in the American "Progressives" of 100 years ago and also, of course in Marx & Engels. And if Marx & Engels were not Leftists, I do not know who would be. It is only silly old conservatives who advocate things like liberty and respect for the individual. Leftists hate patriotism now but they were happy to use it in the past.

Green-eyed envy about the world's most popular cartoon -- which has just been dropped by by the "L.A. Times": "Gene Weingarten, a humor columnist for The Washington Post and Washington Post Writers Group, praised the Times decision during his weekly washingtonpost.com chat yesterday. He said the paper displayed "the kind of cojones missing in too many places" and described "Garfield" as "a strip produced by a committee, devoid of originality, devoid of guts, a strip cynically DESIGNED to be inoffensive and bad, on the theory that public tastes are insipid. Now we need others to follow suit. Like the Post." [No wonder people are always picking on McDonalds, Microsoft, Wal-Mart etc. Infantile hatred of other people's success is all too common. Should I hate Instapundit? I don't.].

Vin Suprynowicz has an interesting update on the almost certainly-true claim that the "AIDS-epidemic" in Africa has been vastly exaggerated. Hardly any African said to have AIDS is ever actually tested for it. But it suits the do-gooders to says that any sick African has AIDS. And somehow it's all our fault, of course -- from evil drug companies to the CIA.

My latest posting on MarxWords shows that Marx advocated terrorism. See what a thoroughly modern guy he was? My latest posting on "A scripture blog" shows why the apostle John was a "Gnostic".

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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