The Political Compass

The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left' , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?

On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

So are you ready to take the test?

Bush didn't invent torture

While the Bush administration has certainly been brazen about its policy of torturing its prisoners--defending the practice and denying it almost in the same breath--it hardly invented torture, as many liberals seem to think. Unchecked spying on U.S. citizens has also shocked liberals--a time-honored practice that dates at least to LBJ, and maybe to Truman.

Big Brother Bush's Charade

At no time during this four-year debate about security and civil liberties, despite well-established Congressional procedures for discussions that involve classified material, has the Bush Administration advised Congress in any meaningful way that it was in ongoing violation of FISA; nor has it ever formally sought to amend the law to accommodate the sorts of technological advances that it now cites as the very reason for its secret program. In other words, the Administration has conducted a prolonged charade during which it has pretended to participate in a democratic process of amending and enacting legislation, while secretly and monumentally violating the law that was under consideration.

Latin America Shifts Left: It's the Economy

"This difference over economic policy -- much more than drug policy, the war in Iraq, immigration, or Cuba -- is the main thing that has set Washington on a collision course with most of Latin America. Evo Morales is now the sixth candidate in the last seven years to win a presidential race while campaigning explicitly against "neoliberalism." The others were in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador and Uruguay. And there will likely be more in the near future, as there are 10 more presidential elections scheduled in Latin America over the next year."

Bolivia's Indigenous President: "We're Taking Over"

Evo Morales has been sworn in as Bolivia's first indigenous president, pledging to end "500 years" of injustice against his people.

"We're here to change our history... we're taking over," Mr Morales said.

Our Indian Wars Are Not Over Yet

John Brown - "I'd like to suggest another way of looking at the War on Terror: as a twenty-first century continuation of, or replication of, the American Indian wars, on a global scale. This is by no means something that has occurred to me alone, but it has received relatively little attention. Here are ten reasons why I'm making this suggestion."

Authorities verify -Osama Bin Laden tape is a FAKE!

“A Duke professor says he is doubtful about Thursday’s audiotape from Osama bin Laden.Bruce Lawrence has just published “Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden,” a book translating bin Laden’s writing. He is skeptical of Thursday’s message.

Slinger: Let's trade that "X-Files" theme in for THIS SONG.

Cafe Hayek: Free the Price-Cutters!

January 20, 2006

Free the Price-Cutters!

Don Boudreaux

In the current issue of Regulation, law professor Daniel Crane has a well-worth-reading article on the perverse consequences of prohibitions on so-called "predatory pricing."

Here's an especially interesting part of the article:

A study by Case Western law professor Arthur Austin is telling. Austin interviewed jurors in four antitrust trials, including Brooke Group v. Brown & Williamson, the latest predatory pricing case decided by the Supreme Court. Austin's interviews revealed that "the jurors were overwhelmed, frustrated, and confused by testimony well beyond their comprehension.... [A]t no time did any juror grasp -- even at the margins -- the law, the economics, or any other testimony related to the allegations or defense." Austin reports,

At no time have I encountered a juror who had the foggiest notion of what oligopoly, market power, or average variable cost meant, much less how they applied to the case.... Typical is the response I received when I asked a juror whether he remembered average variable cost. The juror replied, 'Yes, explain it to me. I still don't know what it means.'

Mind you, the jury found that Brown & Williamson engaged in predatory pricing, which required a finding that it had priced below average variable cost. If the jury did not understand the legal test, on what basis did it award a $148.8 judgment against Brown & Williamson?

Fortunately, in 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court found in favor of Brown & Williamson on appeal.

Bush Regime Subpoenas Search Information

"Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading search engine — a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools of the government.

Google competitor Yahoo Inc., which runs the Internet's second-most used search engine, confirmed Thursday that it had complied with a similar government subpoena."

Kudos to Google for fighting for what's right. Boo to you guys who still support the Bush regime.

Racism in Coaching?

The Lions picked another honkey for their coach. The league is 40-60% black. Racism is the only explanation I can find to explain why the coaching and manegarial staffs do not reflect the player racial make-up. These leagues used to be 100% honkey, when blacks were banned from playing. Now the barriers to playing have lifted, and a natural, stable fraction of black participation has been established, at rates far above the black population of 12%. What else but racism can explain the coaching and managarial staffs have not reached these same levels of black participation? Perhaps the trend is alleviating this disparity. Last week I think that 3 of the 8 remaining teams had black head coaches.

Bush's Ratings Down: Time for a New Bin Laden Tape

Funny how Bush family friend, Ossama, always puts out a new tape when Bush's ratings start to slip.

US College Grads are Dumb

" The survey showed a strong relationship between analytic coursework and literacy. Students in two-year and four-year schools scored higher when they took classes that challenged them to apply theories to practical problems or weigh competing arguments."

I wonder if the study breaks down grads from the following areas:

1. Engineering and Sciences.
2. Liberal Arts.
3. Education.
4. Communication.
5. Nursing.
6. Social Work
7. Business.

And further breaks down Big State U (University of Wisconson) vs. Little U (Easter Mich U).

My prediction: (1) and (2) above beat the crap out of (2 - 6), but Big U and Little U have little difference (provided that grads have the same major). In other words, U-Mich students who major in social work have just as little intellectual development as Eastern Mich social work majors, but Eastern Mich chemistry majors beat the pants off U-Mish journalism majors.

David’s Friend Goliath: Inevitable Ingratitude

"In the end, however, what other nations do or do not say about the United States will not be crucial to whether, or for how long, the United States continues to function as the world’s government. That will depend on the willingness of the American public, the ultimate arbiter of American foreign policy, to sustain the costs involved. In the near future, America’s role in the world will have to compete for public funds with the rising costs of domestic entitlement programs. It is Social Security and Medicare, not the rise of China or the kind of coalition that defeated powerful empires in the past, that pose the greatest threat to America’s role as the world’s government.

The outcome of the looming contest in the United States between the national commitment to social welfare at home and the requirements for stability and prosperity abroad cannot be foreseen with any precision. About other countries’ approach to America’s remarkable 21st-century global role, however, three things may be safely predicted: They will not pay for it, they will continue to criticize it, and they will miss it when it is gone."

Both Sides Currupt (Clinton's Cisneros Case)

In choosing between Democrats and Republicans, neither side gives me better confidence over the other in terms of dirty-dealing and curruption. As Six might say, "this system is the worst, except for just about anywhere else." I don't say this to diminish the latest wave of exposure for the republican scandals. Back when Clinton was president, these same republicans not only avidly pointed to curruption such as this Cisneros case (and the purchasing of pardons, etc.), but they insisted that republicans were inherently less currupt than democrats. Surely they were wrong.

I have recently seen republican officials on the gab shows defending their party. They really should shut up, except for admitting to their party's curruption, and advocting meaningful reforms. The repo rep last night I saw last night shamed himself, on the one hand claiming that those earmark provisions have actually been going down, and advocating measures to further reduce them. My advice: loudly -- and with the fewest words possible -- admit to the enormity of this practice in general, and call for complete eradication of them. And admit that the repos in the '90s promised to be cleaner than the demos, and they have proven themselves to be liars.

Then: admit that George Will is correct. There is no way to "reform" this mess. The only way to diminish curruption is to diminish the activities of government. For example, if we had a single flat tax system, there could be no lobbiests advocating for changes to the tax code. If the fedl govt got out of the business of building bridges and mueusams, no lobbiests would seek fedl money for "bridges to nowhere" and meusams for cowoys. There simply is no way to curb curruption if congress stays in the business of doing just about everything.

"Terror Strike" (?) Against Al-Qaeda Bomb Maker

Nadir labels the missile strike in Pakistan as an act of "terror." ABC News now identifies one of the dead as an important Qaeda bomb maker. If Al Qaeda was a band of white christians holed up in Alpian villiages, and who had been blowing up Nigerian airlines and Venezualan churches, how would Nadir have the Venezaualan military counter them?

Pigs Fly!

The European Union has suspended a payment of $42 million to the Palestinian Authority.

The European Union has suspended 35 million euros ($42 million) in aid to the Palestinians, citing their lack of budgetary discipline, the EU’s commissioner for external relations said on Tuesday.

The rare sanction underscored intensified foreign donor scrutiny on the Palestinian Authority since Israel quit the Gaza Strip last year after 38 years of occupation. The impoverished territory is widely seen as a testing ground for statehood. Visiting the region ahead of Palestinian legislative elections on January 25, the EU commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said half of 70 million euros ($84 million) donated through the World Bank in November has not been released, and that the issue was under discussion.

“The biggest donor is the European Commission, and we have not paid because the benchmarks have not been fulfilled,” she told reporters.

Index Of Economic Freedom

The 2006 report on the world's best and worst as far as economic freedom is concerned. Below are the bottom-dwellers. Notice that Hugo Chavez's Venezuela is right smack dab in the middle of the worst of the worst:

Haiti
Turkmenistan
Laos
Cuba
Belarus
Venezuela
Libya
Zimbabwe
Burma
Iran
Korea, North

"In the wake of a failed—and hotly contested—2004 recall attempt, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías has clamped down on civil liberties, property rights, and Western foreign oil companies that are still operating in this impoverished South American country. He has decreed new laws that define public protest as a crime, has imposed media restrictions that encourage substantial self-censorship under threat of operating license confiscation, and has begun to seize large rural farms and ranches that he claims are not sufficiently productive. Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramírez announced in May 2005 that income taxes on the handful of foreign firms pumping oil in Venezuela would be raised to 50 percent from 34 percent, retroactive to 2001. Energy experts reportedly believe that Venezuela is shipping less oil than it claims as a result of lagging maintenance at the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., the internal resources of which allegedly have been sapped by corruption, mismanagement, and the diversion of profits to social programs and government officials. To the alarm of neighbors and internal opponents, the government has announced the purchase of 100,000 assault rifles, a number of Russian combat helicopters, and possibly MiG-29 jet fighters, as well as a reserve-force buildup to some 1.5 million cadres. Venezuela's fiscal burden of government is 0.7 point worse this year. As a result, its overall score is 0.07 point worse this year."

And we're supposed to use Chavez's Venezuela as an example of a successful socialist dictatorial society?

Another "Rare" Occurance of Racism?

"There's two swastikas. 'KKK' is written on the top and bottom and in between it says, 'Move out N-----,'" said Lee Burke, 43.

"It covers the whole garage door."

A Christian Al-Qaida?

Here's the Lord's Resistance Army, in Uganda, which is as bad as Al-Qaida, though it does not appear bent on ruling more than just a small region. I'm not sure how central a role that the bible plays in its activities; the leader claims to be imposing the Ten Commandments. I wonder how many of these people started as innocent children, but got transformed into butchers by the process described in this article (forced to execute your own family, for one thing).

Demand Apology-o-rama: Clinton's Plantation Comment

The Repos and Demos both are equally deplorable in choosing to take offense at comments with which they disagree, and then issuing urgent demands, always for an apology, and often for firings and resignations. The latest example is Hilary Clinton's charactorization of the house of represenatives being run "like a plantation." I call for people who disagree with this comment to merely to merely articulate their disagreement, and then move on, without takig offense. Such conduct will serve you well the next time that you say something with which somebody disagrees, and you have to face demands for an apology.

One of Nadir's Irish Ancestors?

Nadir surely owes much of his brilliance as a musician/songwriter/singer/showman to his ancestors who are legendarily boisterous, loud, pugalistic, lazy, poor, drunken, uncontrollably fertile, athletic dancers, singers, bafoons, musical innovators, who have for centuries been the object of terrible jokes casting them as stupid, as well has having a long history in America of belonging to gangs and behaving curruptly in politics. (Please excuse my violations of parallel sentence structure). These Irish ancestors of Nadir's, like his African ancestors, include both oppressed people, and oppressive people. I wonder how many white kids today in high school can name a single work written by Joyce, Wilde, or Shaw, or who can even provide any of their first names?

Black Racism In New Orleans: Endorsed By God

Just imagine the outrage if the mayor of Royal Oak, or of Warren, or Sterling Heights, or Westland said "God intended our city to be vanilla white".

Anyone up for defending this asshole?

Chomsky: 'There Is No War on Terror'

For over 40 years, MIT professor Noam Chomsky has been one of the world's leading intellectual critics of U.S. foreign policy. Today, with America's latest imperial adventure in trouble both politically and militarily, Chomsky - who turned 77 last month - vows not to slow down "as long as I'm ambulatory." The professor offers instruction on the Bush regime's so-called "War on Terror" in this interview with Geov Parrish of Alternet.

Says Chomsky, "Well, the first thing that should be done in Iraq is for us to be serious about what's going on. There is almost no serious discussion, I'm sorry to say, across the spectrum, of the question of withdrawal. The reason for that is that we are under a rigid doctrine in the West, a religious fanaticism, that says we must believe that the United States would have invaded Iraq even if its main product was lettuce and pickles, and the oil resources of the world were in Central Africa. Anyone who doesn't believe that is condemned as a conspiracy theorist, a Marxist, a madman, or something. Well, you know, if you have three gray cells functioning, you know that that's perfect nonsense.

"The U.S. invaded Iraq because it has enormous oil resources, mostly untapped, and it's right in the heart of the world's energy system. Which means that if the U.S. manages to control Iraq, it extends enormously its strategic power, what Zbigniew Brzezinski calls its critical leverage over Europe and Asia. Yeah, that's a major reason for controlling the oil resources - it gives you strategic power. Even if you're on renewable energy you want to do that. So that's the reason for invading Iraq, the fundamental reason."

Thoughts for Martin Luther King Jr. Day from Armstrong Williams and KRS-ONE

Armstrong Williams: "I still believe that liberalism has not solved our most basic problems. Instead, it has put us in the mindset that we have to be fed government programs, instead of being given access to capital and the opportunity to create our own jobs. I take heart in the fact that the younger generation of black Americans is finally saying it is time to move beyond the basic covenants of liberalism and finally face who we are and what we need, not solely as blacks, but as individuals. But you know what? The onus should not just be on us. True equality is a two way street. And every time I hear a white person remark about how Condoleezza Rice “speaks well,” I am reminded that the other side isn’t doing their job."

KRS-One: "How long shall we reminisce over the glory days of the Civil Rights Movement without continuing the struggles and maintaining the victories of such a movement today? How long shall we romanticize the fact that our ancestors were civilization builders without even attempting to build any such civilization for ourselves today? All of this is a disgrace to the very greatness of our elders and ancestors! By talking about our ancestor's greatness and not continuing in the footsteps of such greatness do we not betray the very greatness that we are speaking of? It's better to remain ignorant of your ancestor's achievements than to know of your ancestor's achievements and do nothing to continue their legacy! Is this not a traitor to their very ideas? A traitor to the movement? Is this not a true sell-out?"

The Nadir of Western Civilisation

Starring: Creepy George Galloway

What a freak.

Worldview and Perception in Black and White

"A Grand Canyon looms between the way African Americans and white people view the world, despite the fact that both groups are privy to the same information and images."

An interesting take that mirrors some of the debates viewed on Reformed Leftist...

Venezuela proposes 'Bank of the South'

I assume you guys are opposed to this Venezuelan embrace of capitalism because you oppose Chavez. Is that correct?

Rules for Talking to Me

In person, including if I am in your cube at work, if you are in my cube, if we are driving together, walking together at the mall, visiting each other's home, etc.:

1. If your cell phone rings, you may glance at the incoming number and hit the "end" button; you may answer only in special circumstances, say if you are a parent and you see that your kid is calling, or if you are expecting someone to meet you, or if your job calls. In such a case, prior to answering the call, you must excuse yourself, provide me a brief explanation, and then make your call quick. You may certainly not blindly answer every call, interupting our time together.

2. No clever cell phone rings; vibrate, please, or a low-volume "old fashioned" ring, preferably only after vibrate has failed to alert you, followed by volume that increases, so that you get alerted with the minimum disturbance to the life around you.
- Clever ring: Non-stop blasting of "Afternoon Delight" or "I'm Coming Out"
- Old-fashioned ring: alternating between 2 second ring and 8 merciful seconds of silence.

3. You may not have any earphones engaged (cell phone or ipod) when you are conversing with me.

4. If I sneeze, DO NOT BLESS ME. If you want to bless me, instead of wasting my time "blessing" me and waiting for my "thank you" when I'm involutarily overcome by a sneeze, just honor my other rules.

On the phone with me:

1. If we are talking on the phone, if you get an incoming call, see Rule 1 above for talking to me in person. You may not interupt our discussion with every call that you receive.

2. If you place me on hold, I will count to 10, then hangup. If you call me back, see rule 3.

3. If you call me, I will not answer if I am speaking with another person, in person or on the phone; get in line. I'll attend my phone calls in the order that they're received. If I'm busy, I will not answer just to tell you that I'm busy; I'll hit the "end" button and call you when I have phone time.

4. I will tolerate no extensive voice greetings instructing me how to use voice mail, informing me of the number that I just dialed (which is displayed on my own phone), or telling me to have a nice or blessed day. When your voice greeting starts, I will press "1", and if that doesn't get me to a recorder, I will leave no message.

Have a blessed day!

Terrorists Win in "Munich"

I'd like to see this and judge for myself, but I think it's gonna have to wait till it comes out on DVD. I'm not spending 8 or 9 dollars to help fund Spielberg's propaganda.

Houston Teachers' Pay Now Tied to Scores

I think this is a great idea that's been long overdue. It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

Corporate Taxes, Gov't Spending Hit Records

Nadir: I remember when I was a leftist... and a bad economist. Since you either don't read my economic comments, or I write them so poorly that you can't understand them, here is a new article, showing that in this horrible economy (to which so many hundreds of thousands -- or is it millions? -- come running from around the world every year), and with tax RATES *lower* than before, tax REVENUE is UP. And just just up a little. A LOT. A new record high.

Sadly, though, govt spending has also set a record.

OK, one more time: Tax revenue is **UP**, not down, even as tax *RATES* are down. Do you understand that Bush and Congress cannot "increase taxes" or "cut taxes", they can only increase/cut TAX RATES. When Bush cut capital gains tax RATES, he could not force more people to purchase stock. They chose to do so. Why? Cutting tax RATEs on capital gains = cutting cost of purchasing stock. You do understand that when sales tax rates are less, so is the cost of the merchandise. Are you aware that internet purchases have a sales tax of ZERO? Have you ever purchased something online because you found that the on-line cost was less due to sales tax = zero?

White Racists Firebomb Black Homeowners

Here's a real act of racism. No question about this one. And very rare, thank god.

Will the US Need an IMF Bail Out?

President George W. Bush has destroyed America's economy along with America's reputation as a truthful, compassionate, peace-loving nation that values civil liberties and human rights.

91% of black murders committed by blacks

In just **FIVE*** years, black muderers kill FOUR times more black folks than all the black folks lynched during the years when lynchings were recorded. As for white folks getting murdered, most of their killers are also black. These are amazing facts.

British MPs Leaked Bush Plan to Bomb al-Jazeera

"He mentioned that the document was a transcript of a meeting in Washington DC between Bush and Blair. There had been a proposal to take military action against al-Jazeera at their headquarters in Qatar. This was defused by Colin Powell, US secretary of state, and Tony Blair."

Your president is a maniac.

Philly boom from... tax cuts? (And for the rich!)

So here we have Phillidelphia rebounding from 40 years of losing residents. Why are so many people moving into Philly? PROPERTY TAX CUTS! Who saves the most? Those evil rich people. But how many non-rich people now make more money selling goods and services to those evil rich people? And how many non-rich people are becoming rich in this process? Should Philly politicians increase those tax rates, in order to get those evil rich people to pay more money?

Pig Delay

I hope Delay goes down. Will the voters of his district show them selves to be as retarded as those of Kwame's? It will be fascinated to see if the voters of his district-- which is not in a devistating crisis-- will show themselves to have more self-respect and intelligence than those of desperate Detroit, a majority of whom cheer-on Kwame's fiddling around as their city falters. What a disgrace.

Let's Close the Education Schools

I got hell over xmass for proclaiming that "non-academic" subjects do not belong at Universities. This was a belief held by my family's dead leftist patriarch, Tom Philpott Sr. Here's a commentary printed today calling for the closure of "Education Schools", a call explicitly made by Tom Sr. As for closing Nursing Schools, Tom Sr. and I merely call for moving them out of Universities, and back to trade schools, which ought to be respectable institutions in their own right, as they used to be here in the US, and remain so in Europe.

To clarify my position about non-academic subjects at Universities, I place these subjects into two catagories:

(1) Those that warrent relegation to training seminars: Social Work, Education, Criminal Justice, Business, etc.

(2) Those that warrent their own institutions of study and certification outside of the "university" structure: Nursing, Physical Therapy, Respitory Therapy, Photography, Accounting, Social Work, culinary arts, hotel and restaurant management, auto mechanics, Computer Aided Design, etc.

Sadly, "high" schools and "universities" have degraded to where no standards govern what can get scotch-taped to their curricula; anybody who argues against including a subjects gets (as I did) lambasted roundly, loudly, and instantly (and incorrectly) as having denigraded that subject. Yet, if I were to propose adding degrees in basketball and animation to the Cullinary Institute of America, nearly everybody who cares about the CIA would reject my proposal, and do so without having denegraded the worthwhile pursuits of basketball and animation.

An Imperial President? Bush Claims Right To Ignore New Law Banning Torture

Three influential Republicans Senators are condemning President Bush for claiming he has the authority to ignore a new law banning the torture of prisoners during interrogations. Bush signed the torture ban just last week. But he also quietly issued what is known as a signing statement in which he lays out his interpretation of the new law. In this document Bush declared that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. Legal experts say this means Bush believes he can waive the anti-torture restrictions.

Against Kwanza

Checkout my anti-Kwanza comments, in which I disparage it as racist.

Against Corporate Welfare (George Will)

Nadir: Can't we all agree with this? No corporate tax payouts to Big Ag and Airlines. No special taxes on cigarettes and beer.

Katrina: Do Facts Matter?

More facts demonstrating that all of the early race- and class-based claims and assumptions were incorrect. This article doesn't mention that the federal reaciton time to Katrina was *EXACTLY* equal to the reaction time for all previous hurricanes in recent times: 7 days (I think that's the number). It is clear to me that the closer we get to the proximity of this calamity, the greater the true blame. The people of New Orleans and the surrounding area simply never made a priority of protecting themselves from the liklihood of a massive flooding disaster. Meanwhile, the federal govt reacted as usual... but that usual reaction in this unusual situation created unusual problems. The only thing "racist" is the people crying racism... because they are doing so only because many of the disaster victims were black.

Albert Brooks: Move Isreal to Georgia

If this happened, here's what would certainly occur:

1. The new nation in Georgia would quickly become thriving and safe nation (ie, a democracy based on capitalism) drawing immigrants (not just jews) from around the world.

2. Palistine would become a dreadful, impoverished nation (ie, no democracy), exporting its people to democracies around the world.

Prosperity in George Bush's Economy

Why are folks so pessimistic about our boom-boom American economy? Because for most of us, it's painful to live in.

Ret. Gen. William Odom: Want stability in the Middle East? Get out of Iraq!

"I contend Iraq is a catastophic disaster that is preventing and undermining America's and the worlds ability to confront and defeat the real threats to American and the world's security."

Letterman makes O'Reilly Look good

Did anybody see the Letterman show the other night, with guest Bill O'Reilly? I rarely watch Letterman anymore; I just got lucky. I'm a huge fan of Letterman, and care little for O'Reilly. O'Reilly has a reputation among leftists as being a severe rightist, which merely means that leftists don't watch him enough to know. O'Reilly opposed the Iraq invasion, and supports laws against "price gouging." And he has a dispicable habit of declaring what is right and wrong, based on himself as the Universal Arbiter of such things. Anyway:

Letterman **EMBARRASSED** himself. O'Reilly came on to have fun, as the guest of a comedian, ready for jokes by Letterman cracked against him. Instead, Letterman attacked O'Reilly; yes, attacked. The entire exchange was an attack by Letterman against a guy who sat down with a big smile on his face ready for the fun that charactorizes every other minute of every other Letterman show. Instead, O'Reilly got bushwacked. Letterman showed himself to be a leftist, which is fine, but an extremely ignorant one, and one on this night in this situation who had zero humor.

O'Reilly did a great job, but missed at least one chance: Letterman constantly hammered O'Reilly about Cindy Sheehan, whom Letterman apparantly adores, and O'Reilly has repeatedly admonished. Though O'Reilly succeeded in suppressing all of his many negative charactoristics, he forgot to point out to Dave that of the slain soldiers from Iraq, at least as many of their parents support Bush's war as oppose it, and as many abhore Cindy Sheehan as support her.

Letterman's most embarrassing moment led to O'Reilly's best: Letterman sternly declared that O'Reilly wasn't "fair and balanced." O'Reilly humorously requested examples to support this claim. Letterman admitted that he had no examples, because he never watches O'Reilly's show. Stop here for a minute. Dave is in the business of pretending to have read every book or seen every show promoted by his guests. Have you ever known Dave (or any talk host) to admit that he never watches/reads the guest's stuff? So here's Dave lambasting his *GUEST*'s stuff, then admitting that he's never seen it. Pathetic. O'Reilly then scored a major point by humorously suggesting that Dave watch just once for 30 minutes, "which will make you a big fan. And I'll send you a hat." At this point, Dave further disgraced himself by un-humorously retorting, "Send Cindy Sheehan a hat."

History Professor’s Mail Opened by Homeland Security

Grant Goodman is an 81-year-old emeritus professor of Asian history at the University of Kansas. He has had an ongoing correspondence by snail mail with a former professor of history at the University of the Philippines, where Goodman had taught on three separate occasions.

In early December, he was shocked when a letter arrived from her that had already been opened.

Mark Steyn: It's the Demography, Stupid: The real reason the West is in danger of extinction

"What's the better bet? A globalization that exports cheeseburgers and pop songs or a globalization that exports the fiercest aspects of its culture? When it comes to forecasting the future, the birthrate is the nearest thing to hard numbers. If only a million babies are born in 2006, it's hard to have two million adults enter the workforce in 2026 (or 2033, or 2037, or whenever they get around to finishing their Anger Management and Queer Studies degrees). And the hard data on babies around the Western world is that they're running out a lot faster than the oil is. "Replacement" fertility rate--i.e., the number you need for merely a stable population, not getting any bigger, not getting any smaller--is 2.1 babies per woman. Some countries are well above that: the global fertility leader, Somalia, is 6.91, Niger 6.83, Afghanistan 6.78, Yemen 6.75. Notice what those nations have in common?

Scroll way down to the bottom of the Hot One Hundred top breeders and you'll eventually find the United States, hovering just at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76. But Canada's fertility rate is down to 1.5, well below replacement rate; Germany and Austria are at 1.3, the brink of the death spiral; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, about half replacement rate. That's to say, Spain's population is halving every generation. By 2050, Italy's population will have fallen by 22%, Bulgaria's by 36%, Estonia's by 52%. In America, demographic trends suggest that the blue states ought to apply for honorary membership of the EU: In the 2004 election, John Kerry won the 16 with the lowest birthrates; George W. Bush took 25 of the 26 states with the highest. By 2050, there will be 100 million fewer Europeans, 100 million more Americans--and mostly red-state Americans."

"This ought to be the left's issue. I'm a conservative--I'm not entirely on board with the Islamist program when it comes to beheading sodomites and so on, but I agree Britney Spears dresses like a slut: I'm with Mullah Omar on that one. Why then, if your big thing is feminism or abortion or gay marriage, are you so certain that the cult of tolerance will prevail once the biggest demographic in your society is cheerfully intolerant? Who, after all, are going to be the first victims of the West's collapsed birthrates? Even if one were to take the optimistic view that Europe will be able to resist the creeping imposition of Sharia currently engulfing Nigeria, it remains the case that the Muslim world is not notable for setting much store by "a woman's right to choose," in any sense.

I watched that big abortion rally in Washington in 2004, where Ashley Judd and Gloria Steinem were cheered by women waving "Keep your Bush off my bush" placards, and I thought it was the equivalent of a White Russian tea party in 1917. By prioritizing a "woman's right to choose," Western women are delivering their societies into the hands of fellows far more patriarchal than a 1950s sitcom dad. If any of those women marching for their "reproductive rights" still have babies, they might like to ponder demographic realities: A little girl born today will be unlikely, at the age of 40, to be free to prance around demonstrations in Eurabian Paris or Amsterdam chanting "Hands off my bush!"


Let the accusations of hysterical, racist, bigoted, Islamophobia fly, but the truth is this is the truth and it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. Get with it, self-indulgent, selfish, etitlement-addicted westerners. There's more at risk by not having children than just our precious social programs (anyone wonder who's going to pay for that universal health care that so many are clamoring for?) by not reproducing. Our, the West's very survival is at stake.

But I know, I'm just a bigoted, racist, Islamophobe, right? Right.

Thomas Sowell: Serious or suicidal?

"Do not look for Europe to support any decisive action against Iran. But look for much of their intelligentsia, and much of our own intelligentsia as well, to be alert for any opportunity to wax morally superior if we do act.

They will be able to think of all sorts of nicer alternatives to taking out Iran's nuclear development sites. They will be able to come up with all sorts of abstract arguments and moral equivalence, such as: Other countries have nuclear weapons. Why not Iran?"

We, the West, are going to morally equate ourselves into extinction.

Anti-Christian wear is cool & brave; What about anti-Islam?

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Atldax insists he has a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, which he called a “force of evil” that had sparked wars throughout history.
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I'm all for blaspheming Jesus and Christianity. But who's brave enough to blaspheme Mohammed and Islam? That blue jean label with an upside-down crosss, dare the maker to add a besmirched crescent-and-star? What hipster would dare wear it?

Proposed T-shirts: One reads, "Jesus was a fag"; other reads, "Mohammmad was a fag." Care to take a bet on which leads to beatings and death?