FROM BROOKES NEWS

The US trade deficit with China and protectionist myths The US trade deficit with China has rekindled cries about the "level playing field" and "fair trade" that are becoming ever more strident
Clerical hypocrisy takes aim at the Liberal Party It should be obvious, even to left-wing clerics, that if the churches insist on engaging in economic debates then they have a grave responsibility to educate themselves in economic theory
The Brotherhood of St. Laurence and its anti-job agenda The self-righteousness Brotherhood of St. Laurence claims that wage flexibility only "promotes greater poverty and misery for low wage workers and their families"
Union economist denies economic laws If your raise the price of any product above its market clearing value demand will fall and a surplus will emerge and vice versa. That is, unless you are a trade union
Unions, unemployment and wages Union leaders, social workers, clerics, labour politicians and 'journalists' are claiming that the Government's proposed labour market reforms will have terrible consequences for real wages

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ELSEWHERE

Will hard-Leftist Ken Livingstone admit he goofed? Unlikely "London Mayor Ken Livingstone's previous support of a Muslim cleric who advocates suicide bombings may cause him some embarrassment as he now must speak for the city in the wake of Thursday's terrorist bombings.... Livingstone has in the past labeled Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi a "man of peace" and a "moderate," despite the fact that Al-Qaradawi has supported suicide bombings and the targeting of American allies. Livingstone invited Al-Qaradawi to London's City Hall last year as an honored guest, and the mayor appeared in a video shown at a solidarity conference for the sheikh on Feb. 17 of this year in Doha, Qatar. Livingstone has publicly defended the sheikh against critics in the media and various grassroots organizations. The Anti-Defamation League has labeled Al-Qaradawi the "Theologian of Terror," while the website GayEgypt.com has dubbed him the "Dr. Goebbels of modern Egypt," for Al-Qaradawi's anti-homosexual rhetoric... Al-Qaradawi's theological justification for suicide bombings is entitled, "Hamas Operations Are Jihad and Those Who [Carry it Out and] Are Killed are Considered Martyrs" and appears on a website linked to the Hamas terror organization".

Northeastern Intelligence Network has a lot on the London bombings

Reliapundit has an apt comment on the London attack: "How long before the Left blames Bush"?

We had an eloquent warning over a year ago about the bombing proclivities of British Muslims. A pity the types concerned were not rounded up long ago. I imagine that nothing will be done about them even now.

The Australian government did NOT kowtow to China: "The former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, who defected from his post in Australia, has been granted a protection visa today. A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says the visa will give Mr Chen all the entitlements of a permanent resident, and the visa will also apply to his wife and daughter. Chen Yonglin says he's delighted with the outcome, and has thanked the Australian Government for granting him asylum. Mr Chen claimed the Chinese Government has up to 1,000 spies operating in Australia who've been kidnapping Chinese nationals. Chin Jin from the Federation for a Democratic China, which is a political group set up after the Tiananmen Square massacre, has welcomed the news"

Muslims becoming Christians: "In the past few years, increasing numbers of Westerners have been converting to Islam. Agence France Presse recently reported annual figures in France alone of 30,000 to 50,000. But a new phenomenon - largely unreported in the Western media - is occurring: Muslims, especially in the Maghreb (north-west Africa) are becoming Christians... According to most reports, the culprits are American evangelical missionaries operating in major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Fez to remote areas in the mountains or the countryside. The statistics differ wildly: Missionaries are reported to number anywhere from 150, according to French weekly newsmagazine Le Nouvel Observateur, to the 800-plus figure most often used. Converts are said to number anywhere from 7,000 to 58,000. These discrepancies are easily explained by the fact that both missionaries and converts have to stay constantly below the radar. Even though Morocco is a much more tolerant country than say Saudi Arabia regarding freedom of religion, it nonetheless imprisons anyone trying to convert a Muslim for up to three years."

The Supreme Court's decision on eminent domain in Kelo v. City of New London has sparked almost universal condemnation among conservatives. I myself could not see much wrong with the decision as long as just compensation was given and Hinderaker says much the same -- but more eloquently and in greater detail than I could. Anyone interested in balance should read Hinderaker's article. I liked his conclusion: "The principal threats to property rights lie elsewhere. In particular, regulatory actions often severely limit what an owner can do with his property. Unlike urban development projects, such regulations are often adopted in forums that are remote from, and unresponsive to, the political process. And what an owner generally hopes for in such situations is to be covered by the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of compensation for the loss of use of his property, which is automatic in the case of a condemnation. So it is a good thing that the Kelo decision has focused attention on the erosion of property rights; but, despite the critical consensus that has formed among conservatives, it is far from clear that the case was wrongly decided". There is also a libertarian defence of the Kelo decision here, rather surprisingly.

A great quote: "You don't understand the class structure of American society," said Smetana, "or you would not ask such a question. In the United States, the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists." (from Witness by ex-Communist Whittaker Chambers, p. 616). Lots more good quotes here

The daily blog of "Enter Stage Right" is back online at a new location. See here

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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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