FROM BROOKES NEWS

US economy and current account deficit fallacies If those who claim that the strength of the US economy is driving the current account deficit were right then the dollar would not be falling. But what can one expect when from January 2001 to December 2004 M1 grew by 27 per cent?
Mistaken identities & the Paddy McGuinness fiasco 'Well I never! Guess what? Media Watch sprung that old fool Paddy McGuinness. Old Paddy got himself in hot water by publicly accusing Ali bin Ramsey of not doing what he himself did not do
China's economy is a stunted giant It will be a great many years before China can pose a real military threat to the US, unless Americans do something incredibly stupid like handing both Houses and the Oval Office over to the Democrats
Four myths of the Asian economic crisis The depth and suddenness of the economic crisis that swept through the Asian economies took most economists and investment advisers by complete surprise. It shouldn't have
Louisiana Governor swoons over Castro Observe the moralizing and humbug by U.S. political and business hucksters when they visit Cuba
The state creates the black market What is the connection between the various methods used by the many crime gangs and paramilitary forces to enrich themselves?

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

I must say that I am disturbed that Google News is no longer indexing what it calls "hate-speech" sites. Leftist sites are full of hate for conservatives, Christians etc so are we going to see them censored too? I suspect not. What has happened, in other words, is that Leftist agitation has caused extremes of political incorrectness to be censored -- with no guarantee at all that lesser levels of political incorrectness will not in time be censored too. It does in fact look like bad news for Google. There is already an alternative search service called "All the Web". It may get a lot more users if people get sick of Google's arbitrary censorship. I have myself for some time been finding that Clusty.com finds stuff that Google does not so Google may now have passed its peak.

David Horowitz: "What I've shown is that there are only a couple of degrees of separation between anybody on the left and the terrorists -- and that includes people in the Democratic Party, even those who are anti-terrorist. For example, the coalition of civil liberties groups that attacked the USA Patriot Act are thoroughly penetrated by pro-terrorist radicals based in organizations like the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights. This doesn't mean that every Democrat or every Republican who opposes the USA Patriot Act is a "useful idiot." ... But it does mean that they need to be more mindful of the arguments they are being presented with and supporting".

Another bloated bureaucracy: "The agency responsible for child welfare in Washington state has overspent its budget by $12 million.... The Children's Administration, with a $450 million annual budget, oversees foster care and child protection in Washington. It's part of the Department of Social and Health Services. Uma Ahluwalia, director of the Children's Administration, blamed the budget busting on lack of spending controls, inaccurate cost projections, higher telecommunication costs and years of unpredictable financial management. She was appointed to lead the agency 18 months ago and said she has seen widely varied DSHS budgets even in that short time..... The foster care system has been troubled by tragedies, including the recent deaths of several children in state care. Last summer, the state promised to make improvements as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit over inadequacies in foster care."

Bad brains: "Last month the Supreme Court ruled that teenagers under age 18 who commit premeditated murder cannot be executed. The court based its ruling in part on recent studies that found that the frontal lobes of teenagers were not sufficiently developed, making them not fully responsible for their actions. ... Naturally, death penalty opponents and child advocacy organizations hailed the court's decision. But this diminished capacity argument could well play out in disturbing ways. Already the immature teen brain argument has been used by legislators to impose various restrictions on teenage drivers .... Progressives who applauded the Supreme Court's decision with regard to imposing the death penalty might not be so happy when conservatives turn around and use that decision to justify imposing moreparental consent laws on teenage women who are seeking an abortion."

Pejman on saving the marriage: Conservatism and libertarianism: "A few years ago, I wrote an article discussing the ways in which libertarians and conservatives have common cause on a number of policy issues -- and how the Blogosphere can work to bring libertarians and conservatives closer together. Along somewhat similar lines, we have seen articles by people like Kenneth Silber who have discussed the fusion between libertarian and conservative ideas, and Stephen Stanton, whose analysis of 'South Park Republicans' helps further identify people who are comfortable as libertarian-conservatives -- people like me. My status as a libertarian-conservative is why I took interest in a recent debate concerning whether the libertarian-conservative marriage that has existed since the Cold War could be saved."

Corrupt bureaucracy: "Russell Redenbaugh, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights member who unexpectedly resigned this week, said he isn't sure the panel even has a purpose anymore, adding that its very design is resistant to accountability and reform. 'It's not the people, it's the missing process, the missing accountability,' he said Wednesday, a day after he sent a resignation letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [R-TN]. Republicans in Congress appointed him to the commission post 15 years ago. 'Previously, I was blind to the fact that we have a structural problem here,' he said. 'If you don't report to anybody, you aren't accountable to anybody. The commission can't act any better than a trust fund casualty. The money is going to come anyway, so it's no surprise the kids turn out that way.' Redenbaugh is referring to what some commissioners call a fiscal 'hole,' created by 12 years of near-secret bookkeeping."

Getting serious on bureaucracy reform: "Bureaucracy reform may be the original oxymoron, but amazing progress is being made against inefficient civil service rules and regulations, against lifetime employment with guaranteed raises no matter how poorly one performs. President George W. Bush is absolutely revolutionizing federal work force procedures. The Department of Homeland Security has already put into effect its new system of pay-for-performance, expedited personnel appeals and consultation rather than endless bargaining with unions over work rules. ... Pay for performance is not only the efficient way, it is the only right way to pay employees. Those who do the best work and contribute most to the public good should be rewarded better. Incentives should be given for good performance but, practically, if the best workers are not paid more, they will leave for more money in the private sector."

I have just transferred here Chris Brand's posts for the month so far -- replete as usual with political incorrectness about race, IQ etc.

My RECIPE BLOG has just undergone a temporary revival. I have posted there a recipe for an unusual dessert from India -- almond rice.

My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at the Day of Judgment as described by Jesus.

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 Leftist movers and shakers 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.

Leftist ideologues 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 and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

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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