DDT

Spiked has joined the weary minority talking sense about DDT. As usual, it points out that the evidence against DDT is non-existent and that banning it has cost hundreds of thousands of deaths from malaria in poor countries. But who cares about poor people dying? Not the Greenies. They regard most of the people of the world as �surplus� anyway. You cannot argue with a mentality as deeply uncaring as that. You might as well argue with Hitler.

****************************

POLICE KILLERS

A nasty story on Ex Parte:

LEBANON, Tenn. -- A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was being handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house. Police admitted their mistake in the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They said they intended to raid the home next door.

********************************

SKEPTICISM ABOUT BLACK HISTORY

In response to my recent skeptical posting about the treatment of blacks in Australia's early days, one of my U.S. readers emailed me with a bit of skepticism about American history:

Concerning Black History in Australia:
Americans keep insisting that their Civil War was to free the slaves.

95% of the Southerners did not own slaves. Why in the world would Irish and Italian immigrants in the North risk their lives to free slaves they didn't know or like? Why would White Southerners risk their lives to keep slaves someone else owned? These same slaveowners often opted out of military service by sending their slaves instead, with a crocodile promise to free them if the Confederacy won - a real long shot.

******************************

"NIGGER BROWN"

Australians are generally a pretty cheerful lot and so long ago took with gusto to the old English whimsy of referring to a thing by its opposite: "Little John" was really a giant of a man and someone called "Lofty" will generally be unusually short. My father for instance was always addressed as "Bluey" by his friends because he had red hair. And an old friend of mine who is fair-skinned even though he was born and bred in India is sometimes referred to as "the black man" -- because he isn't!

There has been a continuing saga near where I live over a grandstand at a sportsground which is named the "Nigger Brown" stand. There has even been a case taken to the High Court by blacks and their Leftist supporters in an (unsuccessful) attempt to force a name-change. So why the odd name anyway? Because the stand is named after a revered local cricketer whose surname was Brown and whose nickname was "Nigger Brown". And why was he called that? Because of his deathly-white skin! Even a sense of humour can get you into the courts these days.

*******************************

THERE ARE NONE SO BLIND......

Here is another good posting from Jim Miller's blog.

Ariel Sharon, World's Worst Villian? The far left, and often irresponsible, British paper, the Independent, lives down to its reputation with this poll, asking literary and political figures to name last year's greatest hero and worst villain. Of the 50 people asked, no fewer than 5 named Ariel Sharon as the world's worst villian last year. Tariq Ali is typical in calling Sharon an "unpunished war criminal", a phrase he would never apply to Yasser Arafat, with his long history of terrorism. The lack of perspective is as apalling as the double standards. Whatever sins Sharon may have committed, he is not even in the same league as, for example, North Korea's Kim, who managed to starve more than a million of his own people, while threatening the world with nuclear war. This unwillingness to think clearly about political questions borders on insanity.

*******************************

MICHAEL DARBY

Michael Darby has up an attack on those who think Australia should become a republic written by David Flint, a prominent Australian monarchist. He also reports on the amazing Greenie proposal for a giant solar-power tower in the middle of Australia and also excerpts Steve Forbes on EU tax �harmonization�.

Michael Darby is a fun character. 4WD (SUV) drivers have nothing on him. At one stage he used to drive an old fire engine around the streets of Sydney (Australia). It was a 1928 Dennis which during the 1975 election campaign wore a large sign: "Quench the Fires of Inflation - Hose out Labor". Australia was at that time in the hands of a very Leftist Labor government that had just given the country an unprecedented 19% rate of inflation.

*******************************

ELSEWHERE

China Hand has more vignettes of life in modern China and some sad reflections about pressure to close his blog down. Instapundit linked to my story yesterday about Chinese censorship of blogspot and I in turn linked to China Hand so it is ironical that just as his blog is coming to wider notice he might have to close it down.

Elephant rants has some facts and figures on how the legal piranhas are forcing up your insurance bills.

The Wicked one reports another attack on the conventional view of Abraham Lincoln.

Chris Brand has some very frank but relentlessly empirical comments about problems with African blacks.

The Infidel goes into bat for President Bush�s tax cuts and points out how far Left the Democrats are on the issue.

*************************

Comments? Email me: jonjayray@hotmail.com.
If there are no recent posts here, check my HomePage for a new blog address.

*************************