ANTI-AMERICANISM, ORWELL AND DONALD HORNE

Michael Totten has a quote from Orwell which shows that the Anti-American intellectuals of America today are no new thing. Apparently there were just as many anti-British intellectuals in the Britain of Orwell's day too. It seems that second-rate intellectuals everywhere seem to think that it is clever to find nothing good to say about their own country.

Australia has plenty of the type too -- Donald Horne, for instance. Poor Donald wrote a miserable carping book about Australia which he unwisely titled The Lucky Country. Australians liked the title so much that they bought it in droves for their coffee tables but almost never bothered to read it. They assumed it was pro-Australian! So Donald is now praised for promoting the very ideas he was trying to heap scorn upon! Almost the ultimate defeat!

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THE ORWELLIAN PRESENT

There is a great site here that compares Orwell's predictions about "Newspeak" with the thought police and political correctness of today. There are heaps of links to recent news stories where free speech has been muzzled by Left-dominated universities, schools, media etc. As Tim Gillin commented "All rather depressing, really".

The site also has a great little section where it compares environmentalism to the imaginary ideology of "animalism" in Orwell's ANIMAL FARM ("four legs good, two legs bad"). See here

One of the links is to a recent UK Telegraph article on the quite scandalous 'environmentalist takeover' of school geography teaching. but the article concerned seems to have disappeared from its original site so I have re-posted it here.

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DUMB MEDIA

Another good post from Jim Miller's blog:

Estonia, Russia:

Sheer incompetence is an even larger problem in the news business than bias. This morning, as I was watching the morning news on the Seattle Fox affiliate, Q13, I saw an astounding example. The anchor, Tony Ventrella, a former sports reporter, read with some surprise a story on Estonia's worry over its low birth rate. The idea that a country might have too low a birth rate seemed entirely new to both him and his co-anchor, Christine Chen, even though it has been discussed for decades by demographers. Neither showed any awareness of the fact that nearly all the European countries have fertility rates below replacement.

To illustrate the story, there was a map of Russia, with "Estonia, Russia" on it, at about the location of Moscow. Whoever drew up the map thought that Estonia was a location in Russia. Words fail me.

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CATHOLIC OPPOSITION TO SOCIALISM

Tim Gillin has emailed me a short but content-rich history of some Roman Catholic economic thought in which he points out a Catholic tradition of favouring decentralization of power and of opposition to socialism. I have just posted the email here (scroll down). With the help of lots of links, Tim crams quite an education into his email. Definite thinking-cap stuff!

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GLOBAL DECEPTION

The Economist shows how laughable is the latest Greenie attempt to "get" the statistician (Lomborg) who exposed their lies. The attempt inadvertently confirms who the dishonest ones are. Aaron Oakley has Lomborg�s reply. And there is a good picture of global warming in the Baltic sea at the moment here.

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CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILITY AGAIN

I wrote yesterday at the conclusion of my note about Japanese history that "Any idea that Christianity is necessary for the development and maintenance of a civil society is historically ludicrous." Rev. Brian Chapin of American Realpolitik emailed me the following response to that: As a Christian minister it might surprise you to know I agree with you. There has to be some sort of agreement on the moral backbone of a society, but where that agreement comes from is less important than the fact that there is one.

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ELSEWHERE

Michael Darby has a posting that shows the evil nature of Leftist Anti-Americanism.

Chris Brand writes on the pathetic state of law-enforcement in Britain today.

Shishir Yerramilli writes: THIS PERSON SHOULD BE SHOT DEAD -- AND, BY GOD, ALSO SHOOT ALL 'PERFORMANCE ARTISTS' JUST IN CASE!

The Wall St. Journal says: That neo-Nazis hate America and thought Sept. 11 justified is hardly news; we noted it on Sept. 11. But do you suppose it ever gives those on the far left pause that their views on the most important issues of the day are indistinguishable from those of Nazis?

And since Hitler was a socialist, it is no co-incidence either.

The Wicked one has amusing comments on gays and on Iraq.

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