SOME ECONOMICS

There is a big article here spelling out how conservative policies are much better for the poor than Leftist policies are.

Enter the protectionist dragon: "America's rapidly expanding trade with China is awakening a dragon -- the dragon of protectionism. As trade has grown between the two giant economies, so too have trade tensions. Legislation sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) would impose a draconian 27.5 percent tariff on imports from China?s because of its allegedly unfair exchange rate. Meanwhile, a recent study sponsored by a federal commission claims that trade with China destroyed 1.5 million jobs in the United States from 1989 through 2003. The study, performed by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, did not actually count real people who lost their jobs, but instead applied a simplistic formula based on the shaky assumption that exports create jobs and imports destroy jobs. As usual, reality is more complicated -- and more positive -- than the critics of trade portray."

A free market in workplace regulations: "In a free economy, under what conditions may employees be hired and fired? And should discrimination be tolerated in the workplace? The answer to these questions depends upon who is the source of the discrimination. From a free market perspective, the only factor that matters is whether or not the government is involved in the discrimination. If the government is the entity that forces a company to hire or fire somebody based on whatever criteria it sets forth as official policy, then that is an imposition, a violation of the rights of private property holders, an infraction against the freedom of association."

A new way to make it harder for women to get jobs: "The union that pioneered extra time off work for women suffering painful periods yesterday argued it was time menstrual leave became common in Australian workplaces. The National Tertiary Education Union was the first to negotiate an extra 12 paid days off a year for women at four universities. Eight years later the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has lodged a log of claims with car manufacturer Toyota including menstrual leave".

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ELSEWHERE

A priceless statement from the UNLV about the Hoppe affair: ""The purpose of keeping these proceedings confidential is to protect both the complainant and the faculty member involved," Grey said. "It is unfair for the news media and others who may have read incomplete accounts of this situation to judge the university's intentions and values."" [Let me get this straight: They say that it is unfair for the media to comment because the media don't have the full facts. But the reason they don't have the full facts is because the UNLV is keeping the full facts secret. Sounds a lot like Catch 22 to me! Or a claim that UNLV has a right to prevent discussion of anything they do not want discussed]

Valentines banned: "Saudi Arabia's morality police are on the scent of illicit red roses as part of a clampdown on would-be St Valentine's lovers in the strict Muslim kingdom. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia's powerful religious vigilantes, have banned shops from selling any red flowers in the run-up to February 14". [I wonder when our Leftist nutjobs will get around to attacking it? There is a SAINT involved, after all! Can't have that! And it's probably "patriarchal" or something too]

There is a useful summary here of a book by a German that gives you the figures to show that the USA is miles ahread of Europe in almost any economic category -- including greater fairness -- contrary to the distortions pushed by Tony Judt. The American poverty level is higher than many average incomes in Europe.

Peg Kaplan has a link to a sustained example of Leftist hate-speech that displays yet again the chronic projection that the Left needs to sustain itself. It portrays Republicans as all being super-rich and uncaring -- quite ignoring the fact that super-rich Americans (like John Kerry and George Soros) are far more likely to be Democrats than Republicans and that donations to charity are far more likely to come from Republicans than Democrats. And the idea that all the Southern "rednecks" who voted for GWB are rich is quite hilarious. And portraying Christians as uncaring despite all their charitable works is just off the planet. Where is the Leftist equivalent of the Salvation Army, for instance? Reality is so pesky to Leftists that it is no wonder they say there is no such thing.

Funny how Leftists used to say IQ is meaningless: "The California Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for dozens of condemned prisoners to escape their death sentences on the grounds they are mentally retarded, defining the disability more flexibly than prosecutors had wanted. Prosecutors, who fear a flood of petitions from death-row inmates, wanted the court to define retardation using a specific IQ level. They suggested 70 on a scale on which the average is 100. The court declined". [Odd how the Left are not all up in arms about this "meaningless" decision! It shows again how nonexistent their "principles" are]

The recent death of Arthur Miller has spurred a few eulogies of him. This eulogy says that he "wrestled with big moral and political questions in America". Since you are not likely to hear it from the MSM, it might be worth reminding readers that he was a proven Soviet dupe.

Michelle Malkin has some background on the now fortunately ousted CNN "News" head Eason Jordan. His history of frantic anti-Americanism is a long one.

White flight in England now: "White and ethnic minority communities are becoming increasingly separated by growing levels of population movement and immigration, a report says today. More white families are moving from London to the regions while many immigrants arrive in the capital from overseas, the think-tank Migrationwatch says. The change in 10 years has been "extraordinarily rapid'', with 606,000 more people moving out of London than arrived from elsewhere in the country. In the same period, a net 726,000 immigrants arrived in the capital.... Migrationwatch says the changes, even for a city as diverse and as vibrant as London, are "unprecedented''. It says: "Migration within the UK is mainly from areas of high ethnic minority population to those with predominantly white populations. "The effect is a rapid increase in the ethnic minority composition of some boroughs, resulting from an outflow of the white population and an inflow of African and Asian international migrants.

There is a good summary here of how the blogosphere helped Bush win the 2004 election.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes more mockery of Jews. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" has more on both Hell and the environment.

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 2004 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.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

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