Author Archive

The common enemy of the Western world According to a pair of Gallup polls released last week, 83 percent of Americans say Israel is justified in taking military action against Hezbollah, while 76 percent disapprove of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. Yet when asked which side in the conflict the United States should take,... »

Majority Rights For anybody who is wondering what has happened to the “Majority Rights” blog, it is down for technical, not political reasons. Why? From what I gather, it has a “blue-eyed beauty” thread that is both gargantuan (with heaps of graphics) and very active (it has been going for months)... »

The Virtue of Riches How wealth makes us more moral — a few excerpts from here For many Americans, riches are so disreputable that taking them away is a goal in itself. The left used to offer the misery of the poor as a reason for redistribution, but these days an increase in inequality... »

European Regulators Disregard Fairness, Undermine Property Rights (Again) … While the U.S. Government Remains Silent The European Commission (EC), in all its zeal to control competition worldwide by targeting successful U.S. corporations, has once again shown its anti-American stripes, disregard for fairness and contempt for intellectual property rights. This week, the EC... »

THE POISONOUS BRITISH CHATTERING CLASSES Below are some excerpts from a recent article by Melanie Phillips. It may be noted that the prewar equivalents of today’s British chattering classes overwhelmingly supported Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler. Their desperation to appear wiser than the common people cuts them off from all political reality There... »

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY BELOW By Spanish writer Sebastian Villar Rodriguez I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen... »

AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION POLICY THAT MIGHT WORK And be acceptable politically Border Patrol agents I spoke with were reluctant to be quoted on the record, but all agreed that a comprehensive solution that combines more and better border enforcement with a well-designed guest-worker program is necessary if real progress is going to be made. “We need... »

LAKOFF REVISITED The Guru of the American far Left would have to be Noam Chomsky, and, like most gurus, he makes a good thing out of it. But he is marginal to mainstream politics. For the American mainstream Left at the moment, the guru seems to be none other than the hilarious George... »

Why do racist belief systems persist? British-born Harvard history Professor Niall Ferguson makes a game attempt to answer the above question here. Some of the factors he mentions are a bit speculative but, all things considered, he goes about as far as political correctness allows. I however am a retired academic and seek... »

SOME INTERESTING CONFERENCE NOTES FROM STEPHEN FRANK Saturday afternoon we heard U.S. Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma speak. He noted that by 2016, 80% of the Federal budget will go towards Social Security, Medicare and Interest payments. Imagine, no money for roads, parks, salaries, education, or defense. So far, according to the Senator few in... »

Marvellous what a dose of their own medicine does: “Militants in the Gaza Strip have reportedly agreed to stop firing rockets into Israel. Senior Palestinian officials have been quoted saying militant groups in Gaza have agreed to a unilateral cease-fire. They have been battling Israeli troops for more than three... »

The war against Israel An excerpt from Melanie Phillips It was said by Holocaust survivors that what provoked in them the most intense despair, to the point where some attempted suicide, was not the infernal depredations to which they had been subject by their Nazi exterminators but the subsequent indifference and rank disbelief of a... »

MORE JUNK PSYCHOLOGY There is an amusing post here, repeated here under the heading “Right Wing Personalities have greater trouble remembering what they read and making correct inferences”. From that title one would expect that the post would have something to do with the conservative side of politics as we know it... »

Brookes News Update US economy and recession: theory and counter theory: When manufacturing was sinking 2000 and the US economy along with it the causes of the oncoming recession were still being hotly debated in some quarters, with very few focusing their attention on monetary factors Effective minimum wages do cause unemployment: Economics teaches... »

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF WIKIPEDIA BIAS A lot of the entries on Wikipedia about psychology display a Leftist bias. So, as a conservative academic psychologist, I should step in and correct that — right? Well, I HAVE tried but my corrections don’t last long. See for instance this entry about a bit of... »

WHY THE CURRENT CONFLICT INVOLVING ISRAEL? Find here the address by Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the Knesset last Monday. He speaks with blinding clarity about the present situation. Some excerpts: Over the past few weeks, our enemies have challenged the sovereignty of the State of Israel and... »

THE PRESENT ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT There are some good answers here to some of the stupid media statements being made about the present conflict. A few excerpts: If Israel is so intent on creating a humanitarian disaster, why does she supply Gaza with electricity and water? Why is Israel constantly monitoring the situation and taking the... »

My birthday celebrations Unlike a lot of bloggers, I don’t write routinely about my personal life but occasionally I do break out and I thought that a birthday is a reasonable occasion to do so. So here comes a very rambling account of my 63rd birthday celebrations on the weekend just... »

BIRTHDAY It’s my 63rd birthday this weekend and celebrations are already underway so I won’t be posting much for a day or two but, for the moment, there are a few recent readings of interest below. As I write this I am listening to the wonderful music of J.S. Bach. Perfect birthday... »

BOOK REVIEW of September Day – A novel by Larry Schweikart & Jeff Head Rather than review this novel myself, I thought that a review from someone who is politically middle of the road might be more useful. Ken, A keen book-reading friend, has therefore read the book and commented... »