Matthew Syed says something useful

On 4th., I made a few comments about an article in "The Times" of London by Matthew Syed in which he attacked all mention of race. He has apparently done some reading since then. His latest article is still a rehash of a lot of old stuff but he has got to the point now of attacking Leftists for thinking that interracial differences have to be denied. Bravo Matthew! Keep up your reading.

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Media lies

Post below lifted from American Thinker. See the original for links and full details



Scott Beauchamp was the last straw. I realized that I need a scorecard to keep track of all the fallen journalists, journalistic mistakes and major and minor screw-ups in the media. I couldn't find one already made, although Wikipedia came close, so I started my own. I apologize if there is a good list already out there, but I looked and could not find.

Offenses include lying and fabricating, doctoring photos, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, falling for hoaxes, and overt bias. Some are hilarious, such as an action figure doll being mistaken for a real soldier. Some are silly, such as reporting on a baseball game watched on TV. Some are more serious. I leave it to you to judge whether the internet damaged "journalism's ability to do its job professionally", as Marvin Kalb accuses, or if the internet has in fact helped expose an already damaged "profession".

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Misleading Wal-Mart gloom

Wal-Mart stock got hammered today after the retailing giant cut its profit outlook for the rest of year, saying its customers were under "economic pressure." Now I can almost guarantee you that some congressman or think-tank economist somewhere is going to point to Wal-Mart's troubles (which many elites will delight in) as a worrisome symbol of growing income inequality, a sign that the company's supposedly lower middle-class customer base is getting left behind by the current economic expansion. A few thoughts on that:

1) Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott made a point of saying customers globally, not just in America, were under financial pressure. Indeed, one of Wal-Mart's biggest trouble spots was in Japan, where its retail unit, Seiyu Ltd., said it now expects to post its sixth straight annual loss on weak sales. Yet Japan is noted for its income equality, ranking second-behind only Denmark-among all nations, according to the United Nations.

2) Income-inequality worriers argue that it's basically only earners at the very tippy-top of the income ladder making any dough, with the rest of us just breaking even. If so, I would expect all manner of big-box retailers to be suffering. But that is certainly not the case. In its most recent earnings report, Target reported net earnings of $651 million, up 20 percent from a year earlier. At Costco, profits were up 14 percent in its most recent quarterly report. But Wal-Mart has them all beat. Its earnings rose 49 percent in the second quarter, but the weaker outlook-along with the sliding stock market-had Wall Street selling.

More here

Another comment: "The headline on the Reuters story syndicated all over the world today is "Wal-Mart Hits the Wall: World's largest retailer issues bleak forecast, pointing to cash-squeezed customers, higher fuel prices, interest rates." The accompanying story describes Wal-Mart as "struggling" -- which would carry dire implications for the U.S. economy, because Wal-Mart, which serves 127 million customers every week, "is considered a barometer of the health of the U.S. retail sector." The clear thrust of the article is that Wal-Mart, and hence the U.S. economy, is in trouble. Really? What the article actually shows is that Wal-Mart's second-quarter sales "were $91.99 billion, up almost 9 percent from a year ago." Moreover, its earnings rose to $3.1 billion, up from $2.08 billion a year ago. So, in reality, sales and profits were higher than last year. These are not the financials of a company that is in trouble"

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ELSEWHERE

Poles stand up for Israel: "A pro-Palestinian conference is scheduled for the last days of August at the European Parliament. The organizer is the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People famous for its ant-Israeli attitude. Members of that group are i.e. Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey. The topic of the conferece is "Human rights violation by Israel military". However there are scheduled working groups on "how to increase the resistance against Israel military". The Israeli Foreign Office has submitted the protest against the conference. President of Knesset, Dalia Itzik, sent a letter to the President of EP, Hans-Gert Poettering. There is no official answer yet. In the meantime the group of Polish MEPs deriving from all main political parties declared to boycott the conference and help to call off the event."

British bureaucracy at work: "The external gate of a jail with more than 1,000 inmates was left open at night to allow staff to park in a secure area within its walls, according to a report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. Anne Owers expressed concern at the general casualness about aspects of security at Ranby jail in Retford, Nottinghamshire. Security staff admitted that they were fighting a losing battle against drugs being smuggled into the prison, where there were difficulties in patrolling the perimeter fence. Ms Owers also highlighted a "large and unexpected" shortfall in the prison's accounts that could lead to delays in dealing with the problems."

Forget All Those Other Gaffes, This One Will Sink Obama: "Yesterday I said, "goodnight, Senator," and pretty much wrote off Barack Obama's chances of overtaking Hillary Clinton. Well, things just get worse for the Illinois senator. First it was his pledge to meet with every dictator with no conditions. Then it was threatening ground troops in Pakistan. Then it was taking nukes off the table. Then it was calling U.S. policy in Afghanistan "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians." Now, worst of all for his chances, comes this headline from the AP: Obama Says Bush Not Solely to Blame. I thought this man was running for the Democratic nomination. The party's base will never forgive a statement like that."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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