FROM BROOKES NEWS

War, destruction and Keynesian madness Keynesians are making the insane argument that wholesale destruction leads to greater and more advanced investments and thus raises living standards
Syrian Intellectuals call on Syria's President Al-Assad to withdraw from Lebanon Syrian Intellectuals call on Syria's President Al-Assad to withdraw from Lebanon
Bastiat's "Unwanted Goods" Bastiat was a fairly dry-witted writer, but his criticisms of 19th century France's policies are integral to today's world
Do not believe any of the news about Israel that's fit to print Folks, it pains me as a newspaper columnist to say this, but, you really should not believe anything you read in those lying newspapers
Castro proves embargo foes wrong Free-market wizards' theorems and equations don't allow for variables like "Castroism". So they keep plugging in China, Vietnam, Poland, etc

Details here

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

Kos is once again trying to tip things on their ear. He seems to agree with GWB over his attempts to cut out government pork for cotton farmers (put in place by Democrats -- including "Great Society" LBJ) but at the same time seems to think the whole thing discredits Republicans! Go figure! I would have thought it shows GWB's political courage and sincerity about cutting out waste.

Poor old Liberal Avenger is still smarting about the time I pointed out his hypocrisy. Though he has nothing other than abuse to offer: No reference to the facts at issue or rational argument of any kind. He has obviously learnt from Engels. And he still can't spell either. Maybe someone should tell him what those wiggly lines in his word processor are for.

Britain's Independent (One of the world's most misnamed papers) has joined the "Was Bush right?" chorus: "But however circumscribed, the first phase of Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon is another sign of change across the Middle East.... It is barely six weeks since the US President delivered his second inaugural address, a paean to liberty and democracy that espoused the goal of "ending tyranny in our world". Reactions around the world ranged from alarm to amused scorn, from fears of a new round of "regime changes" imposed by an all-powerful American military, to suspicions in the salons of Europe that this time Mr Bush, never celebrated for his grasp of world affairs, had finally lost it. No one imagined that events would so soon cause the President's opponents around the world to question whether he had got it right" And Publius Pundit details some pro-democracy demonstrations in Kuwait and other places we don't normally hear much about. There are even signs of hope in Vietnam. Daniel Pipes is right to be cautious about it all but GWB does seem to have made absolute monkeys out of his critics now. Those of us who have supported him throughout are certainly laughing.

Fake rally: "The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria's occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning".

Amusing: The NY Review of Books is making a new attempt to explain last November's Republican victory. All that they have come up with, however, is the old George Lakoff nonsense that Bush portrayed himself as "masculine" and Kerry as "feminine". Since there are more female voters than male ones that should have been a LOSING strategy but our Leftists wiseheads don't seem to have thought of that! Nor do they explain how GWB split the male/female vote roughly 50/50. If his appeal was just masculine, shouldn't a preponderance of men have voted for him? They don't even consider that.

Good news from California: "Three more Newcastle residents have been arrested in connection with the attempted firebombing of a Lincoln residential construction site in a plot the FBI says was hatched at a Christmas Eve party.... The three are accused, along with Ryan Daniel Lewis, 21, of conspiring to plant firebombs at two home construction sites on Flores Court at the Twelve Bridges development, one of a string of incidents the FBI believes is the work of the radical Earth Liberation Front".

Dutch flight: "Some 49,000 people emigrated from the Netherlands last year, the highest figure since 1954, Statistics Netherlands said on Monday..... But besides the sluggish Dutch economy, immigration and integration concerns are reportedly contributing to pessimism about the future of the Netherlands. This is in turn reportedly leading to a white Middle Class flight away from the Lowlands. And despite the fact that, emigrants rarely cited a fear of militant Islam as their main reason for packing their bags, the killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a fierce critic of fundamentalist Islam, last November seems to have been a catalyst, The New York Times reported last month. The number of visitors to the website www.emigratie.nl jumped sharply after the assassination. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand diplomats in the Netherlands told The New York Times that while immigration papers were processed in their home capitals, embassy officials in The Hague had been swamped by inquiries in recent months".

Wow! The times sure are a-changing a lot faster than Bob Dylan ever envisaged: The first blogger has now been admitted to a White House news briefing.

Arnie is doing well at fundraising for his 2006 run to be returned as California Governor. A lot of his contributions are coming from the East Coast even. A very popular man -- surely a shoo-in for 2006.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots to read.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Engels was looking forward to a time of revenge. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" looks at whether Jesus existed or not.

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

**************************

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"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************