Friday, August 30, 2002

Revisionism

The Independent, one of the twin pillars of Britain's loony left (The other is The Guardian), appears to be blaming the Pearl Harbor attack on the United States.

I'm not making this up.

You have to read the article to fully appreciate the mind-blowing revisionism at work here; they are forgetting the fact that the sub was found just outside Pearl Harbor (where it might have been carried by the currents, and had no business being in any case) and the SIX JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS that launched a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet, before a formal declaration of hostilities between the US and Japan.

(Link courtesy of Trojan Horseshoes, from Midwest Conservative Journal.)

posted at 06:18 PM | permalink | Comments (2)

More biased reporting

A new blog, Sabertooth Journal, has a nicely-written exposé of a biased piece of advocacy journalism masquerading as news. The San Jose Mercury-News reports on a bill that has passed in the California Assembly that requires employers to provide six weeks of paid leave to employees (at 55% salary). Dave Mecklenburg exposes the folly of the law, and displays how the writer pulled out all the ideological stops in an effort to frame this bill in as positive a light as possible. Take a look, and check out the rest of the site, too; it's full of good stuff.

posted at 06:02 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Countering Rhetoric with facts

Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, has been under constant assault by a coalition of special interest groups who oppose him because he is a) conservative, and b) brother of the president of the United States. Now, a group calling itself "We All Count" has gone on the offensive, distorting facts or simply lying to push their big-government, anti-business, attack-the-white-male agenda to the voters of Florida. Luckily, not everyone is buying their rhetoric. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has a lletter to the editor today that uses facts and numbers to lay waste to the empty rhetoric emanating for We All Count. I am quoting the full letter, because it is eloquent in its simplicity. The author is Lisa Davis, of Weston, Florida.

A recent Associated Press article, "New DCF boss under fire for another article on child discipline, women's role," ends with a quote by Barbara DeVane, head of We All Count: "Kids don't count, women don't count with Jeb Bush."

I would like to take this opportunity to enlighten your readers and my fellow Floridians, about a few important facts concerning Gov. Bush's record on women's and children's issues.

Under Gov. Bush's leadership, Florida has jumped from the 46th state in the nation with women appointed to top policy positions to No. 2 in the nation. Fifty-two percent of Florida's state policy leaders are women.

Since taking office, Gov. Bush has appointed 55 women to the judiciary.

Over the last three years, state agencies have exponentially increased funding with businesses owned by women. During the last full fiscal year of the Chiles administration, Florida spent $114 million with women-owned businesses. Gov. Bush has more than doubled this spending; during the last full fiscal year of his administration, the state has spent $269 million with women-owned businesses.

Since Gov. Bush was elected, 96 percent more children will have access to the state's publicly funded health insurance programs, for a total of over 1.5 million children enrolled by next summer.

Education has been funded at historic levels; funding for K-12 education has increased during Gov. Bush's tenure in office by over $3 billion since 1998. This increased funding, coupled with the greater accountability measures and higher standards of the A-Plus Plan, is resulting in increased student achievement in reading, writing and math.

These are just a few of the numerous accomplishments that Gov. Bush has made on behalf of Florida's women and children. I look forward to four more years of such support from Gov. Bush.

posted at 05:41 PM | permalink | Comments (2)

Bye, Bye, PFLP

I had not been following this issue very closely, but an article in the Jerusalem Post pointed out something that is very heartening: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is essentially wiped out.

For those who are not familiar with this organization, the PFLP is another of the myriad Palestianian terrorist organizations that seeks to eliminate Israel. Unlike most of the rest of the groups, however, they are a hard-core Marxist outfit, committed to the usual boilerplate socialist claptrap. Their website can be found here. Their press releases are filled with ugly condemnations of the "Zionist war-criminal government", and openly incite the Palestinians to revolt. I fully support Israel's actions against the terrorist leaders of this group, as they are a clear threat to peace and to the citizens of Israel.

posted at 05:19 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Sierra Club Times?

At least, that appears to be the aim of this editorial from the New York Times, as they spin a press release from the Sierra Club into a full-blown column, with the hysterical, apocalyptic title The Curse of Factory Farms. There is no attempt to disguise their full-throated support for the measure; at least it is on the editorial pages. Often, environmental advocacy is presented as straight news.

They hit all the green talking points: Lack of biodiversity, poisoning the water, crushing the organic famers, and of course, their favorite—"current regulations are too weak"—in other words, "let's add more regulations and red tape, because our food is not expensive enough".

For once, I'd love to see a major paper turn a press release from the American Enterprise Institute or The Cato Institute into an editorial. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen, however.

posted at 04:32 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Letters from Seattle

I am not in Seattle, but a quick glance at the websites of the Times and the Post-Intelligencer reveals that the idiotarians of Seattle continue to spew their drivel. Here's a sample.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

David Horsey's cartoon (Aug. 22) showing President Bush giving the rich almost all the goodies and the rest of us only crumbs was right on the mark, but please do not give "W" all the credit for such maldistribution.

Our own Sen. Patty Murray would do worse. She is a fervent advocate of eliminating the estate tax, a gift for the undeserving rich that will result in the rest of us having to make up for the lost revenue by paying higher taxes.

Ben Stickler

Seattle

Wow, we have an aggressive class warrior here; he not only doesn't feel that the rich should keep the money that their parents have worked to amass, but they are undeserving. He frets about higher taxes, but I doubt that he supported the Bush tax cut, which dropped taxes for the lowest bracket by a full one third.

I have a question for Mr. Stickler. Why is it that the richest taxpayers (those in the highest bracket) are still paying a higher percentage of their taxes (even after the tax cut) than they were when Clinton was inaugurated? Was it because the "massive tax cut for the rich" still didn't cancel out the massive tax INCREASE from 1993?

This letter, from the Seattle Times, cannot be rebutted, because her screaming anti-Bush fervor obviously renders her incapable of coherent thought:

The Bush administration, in an effort to promote a war with Iraq, repeats endlessly that we need a regime change.

Right sentiment. Wrong country.

The regime change we need is right here ... in the good old U.S. of A.

Nora Porter, Port Townsend

Whatever. I'm surprised she didn't work in something about "selected, not elected". I thought that sort of statement was a requirement for those who share her mindset.

posted at 04:21 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Life in Europe

(Note: This will be a recurring feature while I am out of the country. I will post observations when they occur to me, so there is no set schedule.)

A few observations about life in Europe, from my own biased point of view, after less than a week:

1) The roads are scary. High capacity roads have exits that are not always clearly marked, and often the exits are confusing. This is before one takes into consideration the language barrier.

2) The weather is surprisingly warm and uncomfortably humid. I was under the (mistaken) impression that summers were pleasant in Central Europe. It's not a blast furnace like Phoenix or a soup bowl like Florida, but it is pretty darn warm.

3) I have never seen so many yellowjackets in my life. They are everywhere, and they seem to prefer the inside of buildings to the outdoors. You've not experienced life until you've tried to shave while dodging aggressive yellowjackets.

On the other hand...

4)The people here are friendly, without being obseqious. I obviously won't be discussing my job or my political views with citizens of my host country, but they are not as hostile to the average American as I had feared.

5) Everything here is CLEAN. Even a moderate-sized American town has a buildup of trash and litter in the streets; that does not appear to be the case here.

6) Almost everyone here speaks at least two languages, and one of them is usually English. I am trying to learn the local language, but it is very nice to be able to converse in my native language in another country.

posted at 03:54 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

I'm back...

...more or less.

Internet access here has proved to be much more difficult (and much more expensive) than I had originally anticipated, so I will be blogging on a reduced schedule. I will update several times a week, but probably not every day. We'll have to see how this works out.

posted at 06:31 AM | permalink | Comments (2)