Muslims vs. the world

Mark Steyn makes an important observation: And whatever one's opinion of the various local conflicts around the world -- Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Jews in the Holy Land, Muslims vs. Russians in Chechnya, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa -- the fact is the jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies. If you're not shy about taking on the Israelis and Russians, why wouldn't you fancy your chances against the Belgians and Spaniards?

Failure of Assimilation

Ooooh. A politically incorrect title. I'm so brave. (sidenote: posting is light because it's summer - who wants to be reading about politics and current events when it's 30C outside?) Chrales K on Britain's failure and the stupidity of politically correct terrorist screening.

Steyn on fire

On the Rove-Plame 'crisis'  - one of his best columns ever

On the Underground shooting in London

On Multiculturism's devastating effect on British culture

On the SC nomination

On being mugged by reality

 

 

 

Awesome blog

This is really a must read blog for me now.  Every day.  Two great posts on American healthcare and on poverty recently...

Macleans says Walmart is good for Canada

A Macleans article says Walmart is good for Canada. A summary of the article is on the wire. Here are the main points:

1. The opening of a new outlet, in fact, is generally an economic boon for the area.

2. For three of the past four years Wal-Mart has been named the best retailer for which to work, due mainly to incentives like profit sharing and a discounted stock purchase program.

3. Wal-Mart's low prices force competitors to lower grocery prices by up to 10 to 15% in order to compete. Those savings are a godsend for working class consumers.

Live 8 was insulting

The NYT says so

Ireland

In 1990, Ireland's total work force was 1.1 million. This year it will hit two million, with no unemployment and 200,000 foreign workers (including 50,000 Chinese). Others are taking notes. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said: "I've met the premier of China five times in the last two years."

Ireland's advice is very simple: Make high school and college education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent; actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition; speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management - then hang in there, because there will be bumps in the road - and you, too, can become one of the richest countries in Europe. -- Thomas Friedman in the NYT

Steyn on the London Bombings

As I wrote in The Daily Telegraph last March, "History repeats itself: farce, farce, farce, but sooner or later tragedy is bound to kick in. The inability of the state to secure even the three highest-profile targets in the realm - the Queen, her heir, her Parliament - should remind us that a defensive war against terrorism will ensure terrorism."

To three high-profile farces, we now have that high-profile tragedy, of impressive timing. It's not a question of trying and prodding and testing and finding the weak link in the chain, the one day - on Monday or Wednesday, in January or November, when an immigration official or a luggage checker is a bit absent-minded and distracted and you slip quietly through. Instead, the jihad, via one of its wholly owned but independently operated subsidiaries, scheduled an atrocity for the start of the G8 summit and managed to pull it off - at a time when ports and airports and internal security were all supposed to be on heightened alert. That's quite a feat.

...

This is the beginning of a long existential struggle, for Britain and the West. It's hard not to be moved by the sight of Londoners calmly going about their business as usual in the face of terrorism. But, if the governing class goes about business as usual, that's not a stiff upper lip but a death wish. -- Mark Steyn

Tragic

What a terrible attack in London.  Reminds us all that the war is still going strong, whether we want to forget or not.

Aids in Africa

Could circumcision really make a big difference? Apparently so.

Cool new site

Worth checking this site out: www.howdtheyvote.ca. It's actually very impressive. When you need to know about a vote or speech in the House of Commons, this is the place to start.

Sidenote: shouldn't the house of commons site provide this information?

Adscam redux

Via NealeNews (required daily reading by the way), an interesting summary from the Fraser institute.

This study finds that at least 565 organizations and individuals are identified in reports and testimony related to the Gomery inquiry. The original 2003 Auditor General sponsorship and advertising report cited only 71 organizations. The activities under investigation are therefore quite widespread.

The people identified in these reports and testimony are politicians and bureaucrats (government insiders), and political party members and business people(government outsiders). This paper finds that almost all of them have an exclusive financial link to the Liberal Party of Canada (hereafter referred to as the Liberal party). They donated at least 40 times more to the Liberal party than to all of the other main political parties combined from 1993 to 2003.

This paper finds that these individuals privately donated at least $3.9 million to the Liberal party and received at least $7.4 million in private payments from the Liberal party from 1993 to 2003. The Gomery inquiry forensic report found only $2.5 million in Liberal party donations.

Means, not motives

Everyone agrees that ending poverty should be a priority (didn't our former PM try to get this issue on the G8 agenda 3 years ago?), but the difference is how to accomplish such a nobel goal.

The real question is: why are some countries rich and others poor? To the Make Poverty History crowd, the answer to this question, by far the most important in economics and all of the social sciences, usually lies with Western exploitation, insufficient aid and the alleged ravages caused by free trade or greedy multinationals. This conveniently omits to explain how so many poor nations in Asia have got rich; and many economists in developing countries no longer agree. Even more so than most westerners, they desperately want to conquer poverty but years of bitter disappointment as billions of dollars of aid did nothing to stem Africas descent into squalor and chaos have forced many to think again.

There is a lot of information here, about the need for free trade, lower tarrifs and subsides in the EU and US, less red tape, harmonized standards, respect for property rights and the rule of law, but the kicker is this: aid actually lowers a nations economic performance. Let's be honest, aid has done Africa no lasting good over the last 30 years.

The article even references a paper from someone at the University of Regina, among many others. If you are interested in what to do about African poverty, start here.

African aid: more mercs for jerks

Outstanding editorial on what Africa needs, by someone actually writing from Africa. It covers the ridiculously expensive cars preferred by African strong men, the gap between rich and poor africans, and what has and hasn't worked. Required reading, as a friend of mine says.

Africa's leaders cannot wait for the G8 leaders - hectored by rock star Bob and his Live8 concerts into bracelet-wearing submission - to double aid and forgive the continent's debts. They know that such acts of generosity will finance their future purchases of very swish, customised Mercedes-Benz cars, while 315 million poor Africans stay without shoes and Western taxpayers get by with Hondas. This is the way it goes with the WaBenzi, a Swahili term for the Big Men of Africa.

After joyriding their way through six Marshall Plans worth of aid, Africa is poorer today than 25 years ago

Live 8

Apparently Celine Dion heard it from the crowd when she appeared live via satelite. Funny.

I salute the effort it must have taken to get 8 huge concerts organized and all the artists that appeared. And I salute the motives behind the movement: reduce poverty in Africa.

But I can't believe that people seriously believe that if western nations forgive African debt and increase aid that things will be substantially different. I'm all for increasing aid, as long as it's tied to improved freedom and the rule of law, but is that likely? For the last 30 years African nations have been running themselves in to the ground while we turn a blind eye.

What is needed is pressure on African governments to treat their citizens with respect, guard individual liberty and the rule of law, and allow markets to work. In return, western nations need to deliver targeted aid to those that comply, as well as reduce tarrifs and barriers that hurt third world farmers and business owners.

We've seen millions in east Asia lifted out of desparate poverty in the last 15 years due to the growth of the economies in China and India. The same thing will work in Africa.

Supreme battle

It's coming. Get ready.