SOME ECONOMICS

Kudlow on the booming U.S. economy: "Private-sector domestic output -- what Economics 101 students might remember as consumption plus investment (or C+I) -- came in at an outsized 5.5 percent growth. So what did the New York Times do with this upbeat economic story? It buried it. Rather than place the news on the front page of the business section, the Times editors shoved it on page B4. Instead of carrying a senior reporter's byline, the copy came from Reuters News Service.... The Bush-bashing New York Times just won't get honest about America's economic health and the merits of the Bush policies that have led to such strong economic performance. Even more, the Paul Krugman-influenced Times refuses to concede the economic growth power of lower marginal tax-rate incentives. These have got to be angst-filled days over at the Times. It's turning out that Bush has been just as right on the economy as he has been on the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East."

Truth trumps outsourcing hysteria: "'Show us the jobs!' chanted union workers at an AFL-CIO rally protesting outsourcing. They were angry that 'their' jobs were going overseas. So let's go look for the jobs that have disappeared. My colleagues at ABC News asked the AFL-CIO for its best examples of workers who lost jobs because of outsourcing. The first people they told us to talk to were Shirley and Ronnie Bernard. The Bernards used to work at a Levi's factory in Knoxville, TN. But then, Levi's sent jobs to Mexico and closed that plant. It 'tore a lot of people up because some people have been here since they were 16 years of age, and they've been here like 20-something-odd years,' one woman told the local ABC affiliate. People 'were in tears,' said a man. ... But it's restricting outsourcing that would be un-American and stupid. Outsourcing benefitsthe middle class by bringing lower prices."

A British outsourcing success: "Mr Dyson ... caused something of a stink a couple of years ago when he announced that he was moving production of his cleaners from Wiltshire, not to euroland but to Malaysia. The move cost 865 jobs, and was seen (by the union officials in particular) as another nail in the coffin of British manufacturing. Well, better that than the business failing altogether, is the obvious riposte. But look what's happened since. Manufacturing costs have come rattling down, with the concomitant impact on profits. Those profits have allowed Dyson to employ 100 extra people in Britain, not simply screwing his machines together, but doing the altogether more rewarding and valuable work of developing new products. In addition to employing 1,200 people in Malmesbury, the lower production costs mean the company pays more corporation tax for our dear Chancellor to squander on more hospital administrators (or whatever)".

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ELSEWHERE

Keith Burgess Jackson is still pretty steamed about anonymous bloggers and commenters. I myself am not bothered by that at all and I cannot really see why he is, even after reading his comments and links on the matter. As a conservative I expect human nature to be "fallen" and I go along with the Christian view that faults such as cowardice are more to be forgiven than excoriated. And I think that needing to know the author of an argument is only a whisker away from the ad hominem fallacy, in fact. And if anonymity enables someone to blog who might otherwise (say) lose his job by expressing his views publicly, is that not a plus? Jobs are not easy to come by and if you have a mortgage and a family to support, you cannot afford to take many risks. Iain Murray lost his job because of his blogging so it does happen. Good to see that Iain is blogging again too. He describes himself as a combination of a classical liberal with a Burkean conservative -- which is pretty close to what I am.

A good comment: "The real disgrace in the Lawrence Summers affair is that few biologists or biologically trained social scientists have come to his defense. There is ample evidence that male and female brains differ and that these differences manifest themselves in various ways, including choice of occupation. See here. (If you get a blue screen, click "Refresh.") Also, see here and here. Leftists love to criticize the scientific illiteracy of religious people. When can we expect to hear them criticize the scientific illiteracy of feminists? It's a disgraceful double standard: criticize those you dislike; remain silent about those you like."

Hugh Hewitt notes the almost incredible fact that the L.A. Times is trying to whitewash North Korea: "Have the editors no conscience and no shame? Promoting the left at home is one thing, and an aggravating thing at that, but pimping for a ruthless killer regime that exports nuclear technology and murders hundreds of thousands?" The article that Hugh is commenting on is here. And Powerline has an update.

Value for money: "Britain has paid 100 BILLION pounds to Brussels over 18 years, MPs revealed last night. A staggering 37 billion pounds of that was paid to other EU states or swallowed up by European Commission bureaucracy or projects. Eurocrats returned 63 billion pounds to the UK between 1986 and 2003 through costly schemes - many of them "corrupt, flawed or wasteful". Billions were given to UK farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy. Shadow Europe Minister Graham Brady said: "A great deal of this money could have been spent better by Britain. We want to see powers brought back from Brussels and the EU's bureaucracy slimmed down. British taxpayers have been subsidising Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium - which all receive more from Brussels coffers than they pay in. Meanwhile, the National Audit Office has rapped Brussels after the European Court of Auditors failed to give EU accounts a clean bill of health for the tenth year running.""

Biased BBC: "The BBC's reputation for fair and balanced reporting was at risk last night after top broadcaster James Naughtie blurted out his pro-Labour sympathies. In a live chat with ex-Treasury chief Ed Balls - weeks before the May 5 election - he asked: "If WE win the election, does Gordon Brown remain Chancellor. He struggled to recover, saying: "If YOU win the election." The blunder came on Radio 4's flagship Today programme. Mr Naughtie has frequently given Conservatives a rough ride in interviews while apparently giving Labour frontmen an easy time.... The slip-up is particularly embarrassing after the Beeb found its newsmen had swallowed pro-EU propaganda without finding out the facts about Europe. The Tories are already at war with the Beeb over its allegedly one-sided coverage of the 1980s miners' strike in last week's BBC1 film Faith. And it follows Lord Hutton's bombshell report last year criticising the BBC's Iraq war coverage."

My latest posting on MarxWords notes what an idealist Marx wasn't. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" discusses whether or not there are bodies in Heaven.

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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