STILL RECOVERING

Many thanks for the many "Get well soon" messages. All were appreciated. I am making steady but slow progress. I have to lie down a lot to help things settle but I seem to get enough time in front of the computer to keep up most of my usual output. Links sent to me by my various voluntary spotters of interesting articles have been a big help. My guess is that I will be back to normal around the beginning of next week.

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Brookes News Update

US economy, manufacturing and monetary policy: There seems to be a degree of schizophrenia when it comes to the US economy and manufacturing
The Australian economy and its current account deficit: Not only does monetary expansion distort the pattern of domestic production and create current account crises, it also distorts the pattern of international trade
Workplace reform -- our rightwing keep stuffing it up : There has been a massive shift in public opinion against the Liberal Government's workplace reform package. Could this be because our rightwing stuffed it up? Also attacks the fallacy of economic rent.
Economic growth and information technology: It is argued that because of the limited amounts of capital and labour, without technological progress the opportunities for growth will eventually run out
Democrats teach the world to hate America: So many in the world hate America because the Democrats hate America and they control so much of the information that the rest of the world sees
A message to Christian friends of Jews: Just recently, the Pope, leader of 1.1 billion Catholics, deliberately omitted Israel from the list of countries suffering from Islamic terror in his speech

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ELSEWHERE

About time: "Canadian politicians will hit the campaign trail this holiday season after opposition parties seized upon a corruption scandal to bring down the minority government of Prime Minister Paul Martin in a vote of no confidence. Monday's loss means an election for all 308 seats in the lower House of Commons, likely on Jan. 23. Martin and his Cabinet will continue to govern until then. The Conservative Party teamed up with the New Democratic and Bloc Quebecois parties to bring down the government, claiming the ruling Liberal Party had lost its moral authority. Recent polls have given the Liberals a slight lead over the Conservatives, with the New Democrats in third place. The same surveys suggest the Bloc Quebecois would sweep the French-speaking province of Quebec, making a majority government unlikely no matter which party wins the most seats". Bleeding Brain has a look at the implications.

Politically correct top cop in the gun at last: "Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, is to be personally investigated for his conduct and statements immediately after the killing of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in South London in July. The investigation follows a formal complaint by Mr de Menezes's family to the Independent Police Complaints Commission and under a piece of legislation never been used before, the investigating officer had to be formally approved by Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary. Mr de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot seven times in the head after being mistaken for a suicide bomber by officers at Stockwell Tube station on July 22".

Oil: The market at work: "The rusting oil derricks that once pumped crude from beneath the streets of Los Angeles are being brought back to life almost 50 years after being abandoned. The derricks - black, hammer-like contraptions that squat over oil wells - were long ago rendered uneconomic by falling petroleum prices and the soaring value of property in Southern California. But now, with the price of crude oil near a record high and the property market rapidly cooling, Tinseltown has rediscovered its less glamorous economic roots. As one oil industry lawyer once said: "They ruined a perfectly good oilfield by building a city on top of it." In the Signal Hill area, an oil drill has started boring into the earth next to a Starbucks. In Long Beach, drills have been disguised as tropical islands, with waterfalls and banana trees. And in Venice, the rigs pose as lighthouses and office blocks. Analysts say that many Los Angeles wells were plugged after giving up only 25 per cent of their oil - even though modern technology allows up to 50 per cent of a reserve to be drained. Now those wells are being hastily reactivated".

Woeful government postal service: "Imagine a business where the more you use them, the more irritated you become with them. Now imagine that despite their poor performance, they probably will never improve or go out of business. Where does such a place exist? In the hinterlands of post-Soviet Russia? In a backwater of proto-capitalist China? In Fidel's Cuba? Try a post office in New York. The U.S. Postal Service is getting hammered by FedEx and UPS. Standing in line gives you lots of time to figure out why."

Antisemitic public broadcaster reined in: "The SBS Office of Audience has finalised its investigation into the commentary by Dr Yannis Varoufakis on the Greek Language Program, broadcast on 29 August 2005. Your complaint has been upheld. SBS considers the commentary breached Code 1 'Introduction and SBS Radio' and Code 2.1 'Prejudice, Racism and Discrimination' of the SBS Codes of Practice".

Jew-hatred is the new environmentalism:: "RESOLUTION Adopted by the Green Party of the United States, November 21, 2005: 1. The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) publicly calls for divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized. To maximize the effect of the Green Party's support for divestment and boycott of Israel: 2. The party calls on all civil society institutions and organizations around the world to implement a comprehensive divestment and boycott program. Further, the party calls on all governments to support this program and to implement state level boycotts. 3. The party urges the Campus Greens network to work in cooperation with other campus organizations to achieve institutional participation in this effort.

The French try affirmative action: "The French automaker has pioneered a drive to diversify its workforce that other companies are beginning to emulate, even at the risk of violating French laws that prohibit classifying workers by race or ethnicity. "Three years ago, it was complicated to get a personnel manager to see me," says Alexandra Palt, who works with IMS, a nonprofit group that helps French firms broaden their recruiting policies to hire more minorities. "Today it's the opposite. We are extremely in demand and everybody wants to get involved." This month's violence in the heavily immigrant suburbs of France's cities, where youth unemployment can run to 40 percent, has sparked a lively debate here about the lack of opportunities that young people of immigrant origin face. It has also prompted admissions from President Jacques Chirac on down that the nation proclaiming "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" has betrayed that promise to its minorities".

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. On Social Security see Dick McDonald and for purely Australian news see Australian Politics (mirrored here).

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Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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