Brain differences in IQ

I suppose I rattle on rather a lot about IQ but the Left are so determined to ignore it that I feel a need to give countervailing attention to it. And as a much-published psychometrician myself I am in a good position to do so.

What no Leftist seems to want to believe is that IQ has a physical basis -- that smart people are born with better brains and there is not much you can do about it. Leftists hate that story because to them all the ills of society are due to things like "poverty" and it is only the deeds of a few evil people at the top who keep poor people in poverty. That a lot of poverty is due to the foolish decisions of the poor people concerned just cannot be allowed.

Anyway, there are quite a lot of brain differences that correlate with IQ but most of them require complicated instrumentation to detect. There is one, however, that can be examined very easily by anyone -- head size. People with bigger heads TEND (there are exceptions) to be smarter. The more grey matter you have, the smarter you are. Not really surprising but still anathema to the Left.

There is a research paper here which estimates that in the general population brain size (not quite the same as head size but closely related) correlates .50 with general intelligence. A correlation of .50 is quite huge in almost any study of human beings. Medical researchers would kill for a correlation like that. And the research was carried out by Phil Vernon -- one of the grand old men of psychometrics. And it was reported in one of the most widely cited journals in psychology. So even Leftists would find that hard to piss on. But the fact that Vernon studies such subjects at all makes him a "Fascist", of course.

Incidentally, autistic people, who very often have great mental abilities combined with poor social skills, also tend to have big heads and autism is an absolute plague in Silicon Valley, where you have to be REALLY smart to get anywhere. Anybody who has tried coding in "C" will know that. So it seems that, as with so many other things, you can overdo brain size too. When big-brained people in Silicon Valley mate they tend to have kids with even bigger brains and the result is a disaster. What seems to happen, as far as I can see, is that an extra large cerebral cortex firing into the rest of the brain overloads important centres in the rest of the brain. So the withdrawal that is typical of autistics is in fact an attempt to reduce stimulation that is already too great.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

By law

You have nothing, can’t carry a gun, no taser, no knife, not a damn thing, you’re on your own, lock your doors, close your windows, chant some verses and hope you’ll be ok. That’s all you’re allowed.
THE State's top robbery investigator has issued a chilling warning to all Sydney residents: don't drive in any suburb without locking the doors, day or night. Detective Superintendent Peter Cotter, head of the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad, believes the drastic course of action is necessary because violent carjackings are spiralling out of control.

There have been 101 carjackings in Sydney in the past year, according to the Bureau of Crime Statistics, including eight serious attacks in the last six weeks. "We recommend everyone drive with the doors locked.''

But carjack victim Sam Mileto said he did not believe that locking doors would stop thieves. He was held at gunpoint after he drove his $50,000 Suburu WRX into the driveway of his Prestons home. "As I got out someone said, 'Get down,','' Mr Mileto said. "I thought it was a joke and said, 'P... off,'. Then I saw this guy with a pistol. "The other two blokes, one had a shotgun and one had a rifle, I was terrified.

"As with any robbery, if you are confronted by a person carrying a weapon or making threats you should always comply with that persons request,'' he said. "Life is more important than material possessions."
All well and good to tell everyone to just hand it over, it’s only a possession, you can get another one. Note it’s ‘you’ can get another one, so whatever you’ve worked hard for, ‘you’ can work hard for again or do without. So we drive around with our doors locked and look away all the time and avoid everyone and everything, when confronted we hand it all over meekly, what happens when the crim sticks a gun in your face and tells you, “thanks for the car, the cell phone and your liberty but I want your wife too, I want your children as well and while you’re being so generous I want your life too”.

So what do we do then? Perhaps we should hand over our lives as well, it’s only life, and it’s our souls we have to worry about now you know.

OK TO BE FAT IF YOU ARE OLD

The journal article abstracted below is a lot of fun (believe it or not). It starts out admitting that among older people your weight has little or no bearing on how long you will live. Being greatly dissatisfied with that pesky truth, however, they say that maybe fatties are sicker, even if they don't die. But even their findings there were pretty pesky. What they found is in fact the usual finding: That people of MIDDLING weight are the healthiest! Both the skinnies and the real fatties had slightly more illness

The Effect of Obesity on Disability vs Mortality in Older Americans

By Soham Al Snih et al.

Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:774-780

Background: The association between obesity and mortality is reduced or eliminated in older subjects. In addition to mortality, disability is an important health outcome. The objectives of this study were to examine the association between body mass index (BMI), calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, and subsequent disability and mortality among older Americans, as well as to estimate the effect of BMI on life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy among older Americans.

Methods: We studied 8359 non-Hispanic white Americans, 1931 African Americans, and 2435 Mexican Americans 65 years or older who were not disabled at baseline from 5 sites of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly. Measures included BMI, medical conditions, activities of daily living, and demographic information. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) for subsequent disability and mortality during 7 years of follow-up. Total life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy were estimated using the interpolation of Markov chain approach.

Results: The lowest HR (1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-1.10) for disability was at a BMI of 25 to less than 30. Subjects with BMIs of lower than 18.5 or 30 or higher at baseline were significantly more likely to experience disability during the follow-up period. In contrast, the lowest HRs for mortality were seen among subjects with BMIs of 25 to less than 30 (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.72-0.85) and 30 to less than 35 (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.72-0.90), with subjects with BMIs of lower than 25 or 35 or higher experiencing higher hazards for mortality. Disability-free life expectancy is greatest among subjects with a BMI of 25 to less than 30.

Conclusion: Assessments of the effect of obesity on the health of older Americans should account for mortality and incidence of disability.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Yes sir, no sir, I’m your man

There was Kevin Rudd telling us he wasn’t a Union stooge, he was going to stick it to the Greens and the Unions, Bob Brown has rocks in his head, proclaimed Rudd boldly. He offered us balance with his work choices lite, Howard has gone too far, out of touch and black and white and all that, he crowed. When I heard a bit of his speech on Friday, I thought he was getting a bit nasty with his attacks on the PM, just as well since he seemed lite on policy and this is what he really thinks.
Kevin Rudd has strongly sided with the unions by announcing he will re-instate penalty rates and workplace entitlements if he defeats John Howard. Mr Rudd won unanimous support for his policy at yesterday's ALP national conference after he announced he would support additional parental leave and reinstate penalty rates for working public holidays.

He would also scrap workplace agreements and legislate for the return of collective bargaining. In a clear signal of a return to union power, his government would also offer every new employee information about their union and a form to join.

The major difference with the Howard government is the guaranteed minimum of 12 months' unpaid leave for each parent of a new baby, with the right to ask for an extra 12 months for one parent.

The employer can refuse the request on reasonable business grounds. Parents would have the legal right to demand flexible working hours in the first five years of their children's lives.
So much for work choices lite, so much for balance and the country prospering, so much for Rudd being his own man and the dream team BS, so much for sticking it to the Unions, since they didn’t even utter a whine or a whinge; it’s pretty obvious this is only the beginning. I wonder if the Business Council might consider fighting back against the Unions scare campaign now, if they thought Rudd won’t be too bad, guess again.

On the plus side, it looks like the Greens have been well and truly rogered, what a sight for sore eyes to see Bob Brown whinging on TV about Uranium mines and how India is going to blow us all to smithereens with our own Uranium. I wonder if he might then be open to the idea of us going nuclear as well, since the big boys already have them, or should we just remain with the current “grab ankles” set up.

Another conservative site goes down

Just recently, "American Thinker" lost their web address to a scamster and got it back only with great difficulty. Now "Front Page" has gone down. It was still down at the time of writing this. I would not have been able to find the article below except that (as a former FrontPage author) I am on David Horowitz's mailing list. I had to substitute in the address "frontpagemagazine" for "frontpagemag".

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The Real Jimmy Carter

By Alan M. Dershowitz (Small excerpt:)

In reading Carter's statements, I was reminded of the bad old Harvard of the nineteen thirties, which continued to honor Nazi academics after the anti-Semitic policies of Hitler's government became clear. Harvard of the nineteen thirties was complicit in evil. I sadly concluded that Jimmy Carter of the twenty-first century has become complicit in evil....

If money determines political and public views as Carter insists "Jewish money" does, Carter's views on the Middle East must be deemed to have been influenced by the vast sums of Arab money he has received. If he who pays the piper calls the tune, then Carter's off-key tunes have been called by his Saudi Arabian paymasters. It pains me to say this, but I now believe that there is no person in American public life today who has a lower ratio of real to apparent integrity than Jimmy Carter.

More (much more) here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

IATROGENIC ILLNESS

I suffer from a chronic iatrogenic illness. As would be clear to everyone who knows his Greek, iatrogenic illness is illness caused by what doctors do. Usually it is illness caused as a side-effect of medication. As far as we know, iatrogenic illness is universal. All medications have side-effects. The iron law of medication is: "No side effects = No main effects". If we banned all medications that had side effects we would have no medications.

But the hysteria over side-effects never lets up for all that. Aspirin was once thought to be very safe but it does appear to cause some bleeding in the stomach EVERY time is it used. So despite aspirin's very great benefits and the long recognized great safety of it, doctors everywhere for a long time would recommend it only with the greatest hesitation. For routine pain relef they would generally recommend paracetamol instead. We now find, however that paracetamol causes liver damage. The neurosis about small but generally harmless side effects in aspirin has, in other words, exposed people to SERIOUS side effects in paracetamol.

So, as blind Freddy should be able to see, it is the tradeoff that is important. Side-effects that are very rare or side effects that cause little harm should be disregarded if the medication provides significant benefit.

You would think that doctors, of all people, would recognize that and maybe many family doctors do, but many medical researchers certainly do not. If they see a side effect that is found in only one in a thousand people, they will rush to press with warnings not to use that medication. And that is doubly absurd when we realize that very rare effects may be random events anyway. A rare side-effect may not be a side effect at all. If one woman in a thousand is said to get cancer out of taking HRT, what are we to make out of the 999 women who did NOT get cancer from it? Surely they prove that HRT does NOT cause cancer!

And most of the unending stream of scare stories rely on an assumption that is KNOWN to be false. They conclude from a correlation between two things that the correlation indicates causation. Because some studies have found a very slight correlation between taking HRT and getting cancer, for instance, the hysterics claim that HRT causes cancer. Yet "Correlation is not causation" is just about the first thing anyone learns in a course on statistics. For instance, recent history indicates that people have both been living longer and getting fatter. Getting fatter and living longer are correlated. So does getting fatter prolong life? To be consistent the hysterics would have to claim that! That women who take HRT might tend to have more health anxieties to start with and that those anxieties (whether justified or not) might be the problem (if there is a problem) is just not considered.

There is no such ambiguity in the case of real iatrogenic disasters of course. How many women who took thalidomide during the critical periods of gestation delivered normal babies? Not many. How many people who in their youth were frequently given old-fashioned medications containing arsenic (as I was) are now free of skin cancer? Not many.

So we should ignore the attention seekers who are constantly pretending that tiny fluctuations in their statistics reveal iatrogenic disasters going on. There will of course be real iatrogenic disasters in the future (Thalidomide was approved by many national health authorities) but listening to the attention-seekers will just deflect us from gaining the real benefits that medication can also deliver.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

As if they would listen

Part of a speech delivered by Senator Joe Lieberman on the Screw-the-troops-and-America-over war funding bill on the floor of the US Senate.
What message, I ask, does this legislation announce to those people in Iraq? How will they respond when we tell them that we will no longer make any effort to protect them against insurgents and death squads? How will they respond when we declare that we will be withdrawing our forces—regardless of whether they make progress in the next six months towards political reconciliation? Where will their hopes for a better life be when we withdraw the troops that are the necessary precondition for the security and stability they yearn for?

Do my friends really believe that this is the way to convince Iraqis, and the world, of the goodness of America and Americans? Does anyone in this chamber really believe that, by announcing a date certain for withdrawal, we will empower Iraqi moderates, or enable Iraq’s reconstruction, or open more schools for their children, or more hospitals for their families, or freedom for everyone?

Mr. President, with all due respect, this is fantasy.
Read the whole speech at Sweetness & Light, it's a bit long, but well worth the time. Judging from his speech, Lieberman is a good man and he wants America to win. No wonder he got pushed out of the Democratic party, that bunch of treacherous curs don't take kindly to such folks.

Sorry Harry

I have kept a quiet eye on the Prince Harry serving in Iraq issue, haven’t said anything about it until now, but have finally decided to weigh in on the matter, not that I think anyone from the British MOD will be interested in my opinion. Initially I was ok with it as long as his deployment location and whatever else was kept secret.
Prince Harry is due to travel to Iraq with the Blues and Royals. His position would involve commanding an 11 man reconaissance team with four armoured vehicles. However, an upsurge in violence against British forces has spurred speculation that the situation is too dangerous for the third in line to the throne.

Military planners are worried that the presence of such a high-profile figure on the battlefield would increase the danger to all British forces in the area. In an interview to mark his 21st birthday, he had said : “There’s no way I’m going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country.”
But since the Iran hostage fiasco, I no longer believe he should be sent to front lines, I understand he wants to go and made it through the training and all that, but sorry Harry. I know some of our UK readers might be offended by this, but they now have a reputation as weaklings, the Iranians demonstrated that they can capture British sailors and parade them around all they wanted and there were no consequences. Doesn’t matter if some mullah somewhere can’t leave Iran or will be denied entry to Harrods from now on, what matters is that the UK is supposed to be a big dog and Iran a noisy poodle. But the poodle kicked the big dogs arse, it may feel like long time ago but enemy does not forget.

Let me illustrate an example that Harry the solider should choose to follow. Ilario Pantano, he’s no prince, the son of an Italian immigrant if I’m not mistaken, from New York. He served in Gulf war I, he was in New York on 9/11, at the time he was no longer part of the Marine corps, he was a civilian, but like the true marine that he is, he was running towards Ground Zero while others were heading the other way. After that he fought tooth and nail to get back into the Marine corps and go to Iraq to serve his country. While he was there he earned a reputation, to put it simply because words escape me, he was a soldier you wanted at your side or covering your back or you charge into hell with, even with a cone of ice cream as your weapon. I can’t remember how long he served but in 2004 he got charged with the premeditated murder of 2 Iraqi civilians, the charges were later dropped.

He was free to return to Iraq and he knew his marines needed him, however he now had a public profile and threats were made against him and his family by a terrorist organization. Pantano then made the difficult decision not to return, for the safety of his fellow marines. He is a true soldier.

So sorry Harry, if you go to Iraq, doesn’t matter where you are deployed, you are still a prince, the enemy sees you as such and there is a high probability they will target your fellow soldiers to get to you. I know it’s tough, perhaps if your politicians had shown a bit more bone density earlier but they didn’t, so better to sit on your arse than have the lives of your soldiers on your conscience.

Let me know your thoughts.

THE REASONS FOR CONSERVATIVE CAUTION REDISCOVERED

Even the experts find that the real world is unpredictable

Mr. Taleb is fascinated by the rare but pivotal events that characterize life in the power-law world. He calls them Black Swans, after the philosopher Karl Popper's observation that only a single black swan is required to falsify the theory that "all swans are white" even when there are thousands of white swans in evidence. Provocatively, Mr. Taleb defines Black Swans as events (such as the rise of the Internet or the fall of LTCM) that are not only rare and consequential but also predictable only in retrospect. We never see them coming, but we have no trouble concocting post hoc explanations for why they should have been obvious. Surely, Mr. Taleb taunts, we won't get fooled again. But of course we will.

Writing in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne, Mr. Taleb divides the world into those who "get it" and everyone else, a world partitioned into heroes (Popper, Hayek, Yogi Berra), those on notice (Harold Bloom, necktie wearers, personal-finance advisers) and entities that are dead to him (the bell curve, newspapers, the Nobel Prize in Economics).

A humanist at heart, Mr. Taleb ponders not only the effect of Black Swans but also the reason we have so much trouble acknowledging their existence. And this is where he hits his stride. We eagerly romp with him through the follies of confirmation bias (our tendency to reaffirm our beliefs rather than contradict them), narrative fallacy (our weakness for compelling stories), silent evidence (our failure to account for what we don't see), ludic fallacy (our willingness to oversimplify and take games or models too seriously), and epistemic arrogance (our habit of overestimating our knowledge and underestimating our ignorance).

For anyone who has been compelled to give a long-term vision or read a marketing forecast for the next decade, Mr. Taleb's chapter excoriating "The Scandal of Prediction" will ring painfully true. "What is surprising is not the magnitude of our forecast errors," observes Mr. Taleb, "but our absence of awareness of it." We tend to fail--miserably--at predicting the future, but such failure is little noted nor long remembered. It seems to be of remarkably little professional consequence.

I suspect that part of the explanation for this inconsistency may be found in a study of stock analysts that Mr. Taleb cites. Their predictions, while badly inaccurate, were not random but rather highly correlated with each other. The lesson, evidently, is that it's better to be wrong than alone.

If we accept Mr. Taleb's premise about power-law ascendancy, we are left with a troubling question: How do you function in a world where accurate prediction is rarely possible, where history isn't a reliable guide to the future and where the most important events cannot be anticipated?

Mr. Taleb presents a range of answers--be prepared for various outcomes, he says, and don't rush for buses--but it's clear that he remains slightly vexed by the world he describes so vividly. Then again, beatific serenity may not be the goal here. As Mr. Taleb warns, certitude is likely to be found only in a fool's (bell-curve) paradise, where we choose the comfort of the "precisely wrong" over the challenge of the "broadly correct." Beneath Mr. Taleb's blustery rhetoric lives a surprisingly humble soul who has chosen to follow a demanding and somewhat lonely path.

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Just doing my bit

From the Asylum -

To all of you who have asked me to make another run, you now have your wish. It is now up to you to spread the word and let as many of your friends (and especially your enemies) know about my candidacy, my platform, and this wonderful website we call The Asylum. And once again, I thank you for your support!

Here is my 16-point plan for getting the country (and the world) back on track. In my first 100 days, I will issue 16 Executive Orders (The "Cooper Manifesto") creating the following acts. By no means is this a comprehensive list, but it will do the most good in the shortest amount of time:
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7) The Military Fairness and Reformation Act - Democrats and so-called "civil rights" leaders are constantly whining about the lack of demographic "equity" in our military. Without knowing it, they are actually correct. The military has an over-representation of patriotic white males. There are almost no anti-American leftists in the military (except for traitors like Ehren Watada and other defectors who quickly leave when they actually have to deploy). In order to remedy this (and in the interest of absolute fairness) leftists, terrorism apologists, and anti-war traitors will be forced into military service to serve as target practice and crash test dummies. This way, we can all stop "questioning their patriotism" which seems to be such a big deal with the left. This will also give them some level of credibility when they call everyone else "chicken hawks." Besides, it's the right thing to do.
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My favourite is number 7. I also like this bit -

The Natural Born Citizen rule will be amended to allow Australians to be posted to Vice President. Especially those who have proven more loyal to America, its goals, its ideals, and to Western Civilization in general, than almost 50% of Americans....

Cooper as commander in chief, Tibs as the veep, now we're talking.

Curs I tell you

Bunch of two-faced lying curs they are. Liberals in America and elsewhere, when accused of being the weak, cowardly, anti-western, flea-ridden curs they are, are quick to point out that they think the war in Afghanistan is a ‘Just’ war. They will smear the Bush administration for being in Iraq when they should be solely hunting for Osama in Afghanistan. But those of us who know these curs for their true nature know that the liberals would be whining for a withdrawal and surrender in Afghanistan just as soon as we leave Iraq.
As MPs defeated a Liberal motion to halt Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan in February, 2009, the head of the European Commission in that war-torn country appealed to Canadians to stay the course.

The motion, which called upon the government to notify NATO allies immediately that Canada's combat operations in southern Afghanistan will conclude in February, 2009, was defeated 150-134 later in the day by Conservative and New Democratic Party MPs. The Liberals were supported by the Bloc Quebecois.
Well, there you go; you see the leftists in Canada are already pushing for a surrender and withdrawal from Afghanistan, supposedly the ‘Just’ war and the war they will fight. Their fellow curs in America won’t do this at the moment, more damage can be done by screwing over the troops in Iraq and definitely not while they are in the spotlight, there is that whole 08 thing to think about.

You watch America, these curs will sell you out in Iraq, they’ll redeploy to Afghanistan, hang around there looking for exit-strategies and pretty soon they’ll sell you out to the enemy there as well. Like the scorpion, it’s in their nature.

Madam Speaker - News from the front lines!!!

Today’s not good for me, I’m booked all the way till 6 comparing notes with the enemy, we need to get our stories straight you see, 08 and all that. But I have an opening tomorrow between 2 and 4 after yoga; tell them to come back then ok.
"One thing that he reminded us was, this is a test of wills and he admonished us, reminded us that what we say to the world, to our adversaries and our allies, is listened to by the other side," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. Hunter said Petraeus "didn't try to sugarcoat the issues and the problems" that American forces face in Iraq, but noted that comments like that by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who last week said the war is lost, provide incentive for U.S. adversaries.

"It must come as a shock to Al Qaeda leaders to have an aide come into their safe house and tell them that Senator Reid has declared that, in fact, they are winning and the war is lost," Hunter said. "I think it's highly irresponsible for the leader of the U.S. Senate to have said that and, just speaking for myself as the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, I think that the leader of the Senate should step down from that position."

Petraeus briefed more than 200 members just hours before the House vote on the bill that requires combat troop withdrawals to begin this year and seeks removal of virtually all combat forces by April of next year. He then briefed Senate members, who also packed the meeting room.

All lawmakers were invited to the general's briefing, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not attend nor did Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the committee responsible for defense appropriations. "While Speaker Pelosi was able to jet-set around the globe to meet with Syrian leaders, she finds it inconvenient to meet with the U.S. commander in Iraq during his brief visit to Washington," Wilson said.
Well Duncan Hunter is wrong on one thing; it’s no shock to Al Qaeda that the Democrats are throwing in the towel already. By now they should know that if a Democrat is publicly schmoozing with their suppliers in Syria and demanding a screwing-over of the troops hunting them, they have an ally amongst the great Satan.

I suppose stupid leftists will keep carping that the Democrats are not on the terrorist’s side up until some Democrats actually take up arms and head over to the other side, Al Qaeda may be a lot of things, but they ain’t stupid, they’ll take whatever they can get.

IQ COMPLEXITIES

There is a press report here which says rather gleefully that higher IQ is linked to higher earnings but not to higher wealth. The actual journal abstract from which the press report is derived is much more interesting, however so here it is:

"How important is intelligence to financial success? Using the NLSY79, which tracks a large group of young U.S. baby boomers, this research shows that each point increase in IQ test scores raises income by between $234 and $616 per year after holding a variety of factors constant. Regression results suggest no statistically distinguishable relationship between IQ scores and wealth. Financial distress, such as problems paying bills, going bankrupt or reaching credit card limits, is related to IQ scores not linearly but instead in a quadratic relationship. This means higher IQ scores sometimes increase the probability of being in financial difficulty.

So high IQ people spend their extra loot rather than saving it and risk it rather than protect it. Maybe that is smart. It could mean that people who are both smart and well-off are an important source of those risk-taking entrepreneurs we all need to create new businesses and new jobs.

I have had a quick look at the full journal article (kindly sent to me by Prof. Zagorsky) and the data do appear to be of unusually high quality so I think these findings can be relied on. It may be worth noting that the relationship between IQ and income has often been found previously.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Anzac Day

Australia:
"Thousands remember their heroes
PRIME Minister John Howard flew from Brisbane to Canberra this morning, joining thousands of people around the country for the traditional dawn service start to Anzac Day commemorations."
"# 6:00am Thousands brave rain in Martin Place"
"# 5:57am Crowds arrive for Victorian service"

New Zealand: Prime Minister Helen Clark can't be bothered getting out of bed.

I was at the dawn service today in this little country town and the turn-out was far greater than I expected, despite 2degrees and a freezing mist. Ordinary people, saying a heartfelt "thank you" to all those young men of so long ago.
Update:
Anzac Day is all but over, so this writer went and had a look at some lefty blogs.
They're full of slimy moral equivalence, of thinly-veiled contempt and derision for the occasion.
Oh sure, they make the obligatory noises about the "horrors of war" and who can deny such horrors--certainly not those who suffered them.
But not a word, not one word! about the freedoms we enjoy, thanks to these young men. Nothing.
The young Chinese man facing down the tanks in Tianenmen Square, the Soviet dissidents of the gulags, the prisoners of totalitarian regimes all over the world are the victims of these people. Make no mistake, these pieces of filth are the mouthpieces and the apologists for such regimes.
And they're among us, vandalising memorials, protesting during the dawn services, denigrating and belittling the impulse that makes ordinary people remember sacrifice and valour.
You lefties must be so proud of yourselves on this day.

ANZAC DAY TODAY

The post below this one is excellent and I congratulate its author. Our overseas readers may however need some context to understand what it is all about. ANZAC day is Australia's day of remembrance for our war dead: Australia's most solemn day. Commemoration began today at dawn, as it traditionally does. A small excerpt from a news report below:

Thousands of people have braved a wet morning around the nation to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country at the Anzac Day dawn service. Masses assembled at the Cenotaph at Martin Place in Sydney just before 4.30am (AEST) for the ceremony to mark the ill-fated landing at Gallipoli 92 years ago. War veterans were in attendance, but the early morning crowd was a predominantly young one.

Naval Commander of Australia, Rear Admiral Davyd Thomas, said the Anzac story resonated with so many Australians because it was about ordinary people. .. "The wonderful thing about the Anzac story is that it's not a story that glorifies war. "It's a story about ordinary people struggling to overcome their fears and frailties but achieving extraordinary things."

He urged the crowd to direct their thoughts to the approximately 3500 Australian servicemen and women deployed in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Israel, Lebanon, East Timor and the Solomon Islands. "The Anzac tradition continues through them," he said. "Many of them were in harm's way this morning. Their service is still selfless, the mateship is as deep, the teamwork just as vital."

The early morning crowd stretched over three blocks and spilled into nearby streets, while a large screen was used to broadcast events at the Cenotaph for those who couldn't get close enough.... At 4.50am (AEST), a lone bugler sounded the last post. It was followed by a minute's silence during which the only sound that could be heard was the pattering of falling rain.

More here

(ANZAC is an abbreviation of "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps")

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Lest we forget

This is the poem written by 12-year-old Blake Morgan to commemorate Anzac Day and honour his Digger ancestors.


Lest we forget? Lest we forget what?
The beach, the bush and the freedom Ive got!
Its always been here, since I was a boy.
My clothes, my friends, my family, my toys!

I live by the beach, enjoy the sand and the sea.
There could be no better place to live for me.
The restrictions I have, in a life full of fun,
Are only restricted by my dad and mum!

The things they have seen, the lessons they have learned!
They will instill them in me, and their trust I will earn!
For they know the past, and the stories of old.
Stories that must forever be told!

Stories of courage, of strength and determination.
Stories that have moulded and shaped this great nation!
Stories about heroes, about good men and women.
Stories that give me the great life that I am living!

But sadly, I know, these heroes I will never meet!
Still I will march in their memory, on their day,
Down George Street!
I will march for the heroes that didn't come home
And I know I'll be marching for the ones left alone!
My great grandads were there, left behind the ones
that they loved!

So I could live in this great land and live the life that I love!
One grandpa came home and one grandpa laid to rest.
So proudly I wear both their medals on my chest!
I thank you my heroes, from the bottom of my heart.
The young men the donkey, with his master and cart!

Be proud of yourselves and hold your heads high.
Enjoy what you have saved from your perch in the sky!
Anzacs they call you and Anzacs you are

God please love the Anzacs because two are my pas.

Jogger dies of salt deficiency

They call it a "sodium" deficiency below to pull the wool over your eyes. But it is ordinary table salt they are talking about -- the stuff that has recently been heavily (and fraudulently) demonized. It's just too embarassing to mention what it really is. Chemically, common salt is sodium chloride (NaCl)

A man who died after completing the hottest London Marathon was named last night as a 22-year-old fitness instructor. David Rogers became the ninth person to die in the race's 27-year history after suffering from hyponatraemia, where high water intake results in a sodium deficiency. Mr Rogers, of Milton Keynes, was one of 70 runners taken to hospital in sweltering temperatures. Running his first marathon, he collapsed after completing the race in 3 hours and 50 minutes....

More runners than ever began the race on Sunday, but as temperatures soared to 23.5C (74F) [Which would be cool in most of Australia!], 721 dropped out before the finish line. Among them was the athlete widely tipped to win the men's race, Haile Gebrselassie, of Ethiopia, who stopped after about 19 miles. Matt Dawson, the England rugby player, described seeing runners pass out in front of him, while Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef, who was running his eighth marathon, said: "It was like running in a desert. People were dropping like flies." St John Ambulance said that it treated 5,054 people.

Source

Update:

See here for the latest in the anti-salt "war"

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Australian Police use Ethnic Labels: Horrors!

Must not mention Muslims, even indirectly:

"NSW police use the description "Middle Eastern" too frequently in media releases, skewing the perception of crime rates and contributing to racial tensions, a report says. The service constantly ignores its policy on the use of ethnic descriptions and has even issued releases referring to suspects wearing balaclavas as being of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance, the report by the Australia Middle East Christian Council found.

The report said up to two-thirds of the police media releases that mentioned ethnicity referred to suspects of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance. This was a disproportionate use, said Peter El Khouri, a member of the council and former Liberal Party candidate. "There is a perception that the Middle Eastern community, Australians of Middle Eastern background, are significantly responsible for crime in the state," said Mr El Khouri, who is of Lebanese descent.

Source

How awful it would be if people got enough info to actually identify a wanted felon! Fortunately, the police concerned are apparently going to continue with their policy.

It's so much easier in the USA. If no racial description is given, you assume the perp is black -- unless he has an Hispanic name, of course.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Warning: Far-Left hatred on display

I got the following via Bill O’Reilly’s website and from watching his ‘Talking Points’ program. Given that he as a much bigger audience than us I am assuming that most folks in America would have seen and heard what he had to say.

However if you are related to or are involved in any way with families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims, please do not proceed reading, I really do not want to offend any of them or add to their pain at this terrible time in their lives. I will leave some blank lines so you may be spared from seeing what is written by this vile person. Just page down about 2 or 3 times to skip this post.























The following is only part of what was written by a Sherwood Ross on 18th April, just two days after the massacre, on the far-left website counterpunch. My apologies for any offence caused, but I believe we need to expose these vile people for what they are as they have been given a free pass for too long. You probably won’t hear of this from the leftwing media outlets but I’ll do what little I can to stop them sliding on this.
The American people, including the families of the murdered Virginia Tech innocents, have collective blood-guilt on their hands. How many of those parents in the audience hearing the President's words had elected to Congress men and women who voted for lax laws on gun ownership? How many of those parents in the audience had also voted for legislators who backed the president's illegal invasion of Iraq? Are we, as a nation, too obtuse to grasp the connection between our "gun culture" policy at home and our militarist policy abroad that murders and mutilates human beings at every turn?

Who is responsible for the killings in Iraq except the same now bereaved parents of the murdered students at Virginia Tech? It's not that some of them voted to elect George Bush. Anyone can be deceived, particularly by a notorious liar. But when the president broke the law and invaded Iraq, violating the UN Charter, how many of them protested? Today they are upset that a young, crazed gunman has ran amok on the campus of a peaceful university, but where were they when President Bush defied the United Nations and ran amok in Iraq?

The same parents who weep for their children might consider that they and their neighbors are also spending a half trillion dollars a year so that the Pentagon, just over the horizon from Virginia Tech, can wage a war that is snuffing out the lives of children of other parents just like their own. Thousands of Virginians work for the military-industrial complex. They work for the Pentagon. They work for defense contractors. They work for the Central Intelligence Agency. They are in the business of killing directly or indirectly, yet how many of them are haunted by the consequences of their "jobs" in their dreams at night?
This is what they really think folks, devoid of any compassion and decency and blinded by their hatred of George Bush, America and most of her people.

RUSSIAN REVIEW

Excerpts:

The fearsome Russian Bear appears to be coming out of a 16-year hibernation. President Vladimir Putin says he wants to regain Russia's prominence in the world community, and his actions are backing up his words. Unencumbered by Marxist dogma, he is attempting to regain Russia's superpower status by the old Soviet method of intimidation.

Putin has directed the seizure of assets of the oil giant Yukos, and restricted oil supplies to Eastern Europe. But if he can decree such gross confiscation of property, then there is no rule of law and Russia's reforms mean nothing. Moreover, Moscow has drastically raised energy prices and threatened an oil cutoff in former client nations that have had the dared to pursue economic and political independence apart from Russia.

Putin sees Russia's vast petroleum reserves as more than a means to economic growth, but as an avenue to superpower status once again. Last year, Russia was the second-highest oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia. Their GDP has grown at an average rate of 5.5% since 2000, largely by energy exports. Now that world oil prices are high, and rising, his strategy is working. But if they fall, Russia will be in trouble, as was the USSR following the price collapse of oil in the 1980s.

Russians wearily remember the early days of democracy following the collapse of the USSR. That was a time when an erratic, and perhaps alcoholic President Yeltsin governed the country. It was a time when their money became worthless, and crime ran wild.

Most Russians would rather have a strong and secure nation than one that guarantees personal freedoms. This sentiment, and the growing economy, is the basis for Putin's broad popularity. A recent poll found only 16 percent of Russians surveyed want to see Western-style democracy remain in their country. Predictability is perhaps the greatest comfort to the average Russian.

Demographically, however, Russia is a nation that is slowly dying. The country has dwindling birthrates, and amazingly, declining life expectancy. That portends a bleak economic outlook unless they can leverage their energy resources to attain higher growth rates. This is Putin's strategy. Since he became president, rising oil revenues have allowed the Russian defense budget to grow enormously. Defense outlays for 2007 are at a post-Soviet high of $32.4 billion, rising 23 percent in the past year, and four times expenditures of 2001.....

These days, the most important political question in Russia is over who will succeed Putin when his second term expires in 2008. He is much admired, and almost certainly would be reelected if he were eligible to run. Though the Russian Constitution forbids him from running for a third term, it doesn't stop conjecture that he may do so anyway. No matter what the law or his legitimacy may be, many believe he has the support and authority to stay in power. His actions in 2008 will foretell much about which direction, whether cooperative or confrontational, the country is heading.

Russia's culture and history are tied to Western civilization. While recent events may give pause, we should encourage those foundations, and work to advance our common interests. The fight against radical Islam -- whether in Iran, Iraq, Chechnya, or elsewhere -- is one that Russia should unite with the West.

More here


(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

See what I mean

You give in to leftists and change your light bulbs, lose the tumble dryer and starting driving around in battery powered pieces of crap, next leftists will be in your toilet dictating when you flush and clucking at your private habits.
Americans may be using less toilet paper, if Sheryl Crow has her way. "I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming," she wrote April 19 on the Biodiesel Bus blog, according to a report by the Washington Post. Her toilet paper manifesto would limit how many squares of toilet paper Americans use in a sitting.

"Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required," she wrote.
I’m telling you they want you crapping in a hole and they will not rest until we’re back to the bad old days. And don’t even think about reaching for that leafy vegetation, it’s old fallen leaves from last autumn for you and if there ain’t any around then tough!!

A bit of justice in the good old USA.

Parsons, a Fayette County assistant prosecutor, was reluctant to estimate just how many children may have fallen prey to sex offender John Edward Keeney. He says he knows there are at least 13. "We talked to people who had been victimized by him going back to 1976," Parsons said Thursday at his Fayetteville office. "If I gave you a number, it would probably be too low."

In January, he was indicted by a Fayette County grand jury on 14 felony sex crimes against girls aged 5 to 8 years. The charges ranged from first-degree sexual assault to incest. He pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Fayette Circuit Judge John Hatcher last week sentenced Keeney to at least 36 years in prison after a jury convicted him on four of the counts related to one victim, who was 5 years old when the abuse began. Parsons said he is satisfied with the result, considering Keeney's age -- 59.

This is an example for the rest of us to follow.

Thanks to KG, we made the UK Telegraph


Telegraph Link

Thanks to Pommygranate for bringing it to our attention.

Long bow?

Remember that IR rock concert, protest again the Industrial Relations laws that the Howard Junta has rammed down our throats. For the benefit of our international readers, the John Howard led government in Australia introduced these new Industrial Relations laws to increase jobs and cut the unemployment rate in Australia. According to the current opposition, a loose alliance of commies, unionists, leftists, socialists, greenies and mad greenies (don’t ask me to explain the difference), these laws are bad. Yes, two hundred thousand plus jobs created since these laws and the lowest unemployment rate in thirty years are bad for us. Back to that much anticipated concert which took place today.
About 10,000 people attended the Rockin' for Rights concert, which blended popular local music with one of Australia's most contentious political issues at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Eager fans spilled out onto the turf to hear artists such as Missy Higgins, You Am I, Youth Group, The Whitlams and Something for Kate, who all gave up their usual appearance fees to play at the concert.

"We reckon workers deserve a fair go, what do you reckon?" singer-songwriter Missy Higgins asked the cheering crowd. "If the Government has got nothing to hide, then show us the proof."

Unions NSW secretary John Robertson said the numbers proved Australians, as well as popular musicians, were not fans of the Government's changes to industrial relations laws.
I actually expected a few hundred thousand to turn up, even a million since the Unions keep telling us we’re all going to be tossed out onto the scrap heap. And to make matters worse I think the ten thousand that turned up are more interested in the music and at five dollars for entry why not indulge in a bit of carping on the side about Howard, that’s free. You see if it wasn’t for the music, the unions couldn’t even rally a thousand, see earlier in the day.
A CROWD of several hundred people have gathered at Sydney's Hyde Park to protest against the Federal Government's industrial relations laws. Union members made up a heavy contingent of the crowd, many of which carried protest signs, flags and balloons.

Union NSW secretary John Robertson said the protest would send a clear message to Canberra.
While you’re sending “not happy John” messages to Canberra, can you also ‘CC’ Kevin Rudd, the opposition leader and your best hope, because he’s not exactly planning to tear up the IR laws either. Just don’t mention anything about dawn services though, he’ll go off his rocker.

Was Cho taught to hate?

Re: The Va. Tech. massacre

Yes, I know. Tens of thousands of ordinary college students are lonely, full of rage, lost and frustrated. A few percent are psychotically disturbed, and some of them can kill. Our big factory colleges are alienating. Take millions of adolescents, and at any time there are bound to be quite a few confused and seething souls walking loose. Just visit downtown in any American or European city, and you can see all the lost and disturbed living in their private hells. And no, that doesn't excuse executing thirty-two innocents.

Still, I wonder --- was Cho taught to hate? Whatever he learned in his classes --- did it enable him to rage at his host country, to hate the students he envied so murderously? Was he subtly encouraged to aggrandize himself by destroying others? Was his pathology enabled by the PC university? Or to ask the question differently --- was Cho ever taught to respect others, to admire the good things about his host country, and to discipline himself to build a positive life?

And that answer is readily available on the websites of Cho's English Department at Virginia Tech. This is a wonder world of PC weirdness. English studies at VT are a post-modern Disney World in which nihilism, moral and sexual boundary breaking, and fantasies of Marxist revolutionary violence are celebrated. They show up in a lot of faculty writing. Not by all the faculty, but probably by more than half.

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

That’ll show them

A MOTHER who forced her two toddlers to attack each other with weapons and filmed the fight was spared jail by a British court yesterday. Zara Care, with her sisters Serenza and Danielle Olver and her mother Carole Olver forced the two toddlers to punch each other in the face. During the fight, both children were at different times reduced to tears and were shouted at to carry on, the court heard.

The four women also goaded the two-year-old boy and three-year-old girl to hit each other with a magazine and a hairbrush and when one did not fight they called him a "wimp" and a "faggot".

Passing sentence, Judge Francis Gilbert said he found the film "shocking to watch". "You laughed at them, you mocked them, you swore at them," he said. "You compelled them to hit each other even though they clearly did not want to. "You were cruel, callous, clearly causing the children to hurt each other for your own pleasure."

Oh put a sock in it judge, no point banging on about shocking, cruel and all that if you’re not prepared to stick the boot into their bums like they deserve.

Incidentally were there any leftist groups protesting outside the courts about the use of the “faggot” slur? I remember many calling for the public execution of Ann Coulter when she dared to utter the word “faggot”. Ok I exaggerate, they didn't call for her execution, but if she was executed, I'm sure leftists wouldn't have intervened like they would in the case of a murdering pedophile or serial killer.

Still I would have thought some leftist would have issued an official whine about it, oh I forgot we’re talking about punishment and child abusers here, sorry homosexuals, you guys will just have to take one for the team!!

ANOTHER BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL IS HEAVILY POLITICIZED: "Lancet" meddles in Australian politics!

Though anybody who knows of their absurd "600,000 Iraqi deaths" claim will not be surprised. The BMJ has also of course long been known for its frantic Leftism. This politicization does of course explain the very low intellectual standards in both journals that I have repeatedly noted on FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC. With their openly avowed contempt for the truth ("There is no such thing as right and wrong") and their failure to consider ALL the facts of most matters, Leftists corrupt everything they touch

A leading international medical journal has denounced the Prime Minister and urged its Australian readers to vote against him in the election. In an editorial titled "Australia: the politics of fear and neglect", The Lancet said John Howard had jeopardised Australia's enviable reputation in medical science with his suggested ban on HIV-positive migrants. It also censured the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, for saying those who spoke up for indigenous health were "simply establishing politically and morally correct credentials", and criticised the Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, for his stance on climate change. It said Australian politicians were scoring below par on health.

The journal said Australian clinical and health research was "an emblem of excellence" in the Asia-Pacific: "That enviable position is being put at risk by Prime Minister John Howard's indifference to the academic medical community and his profound intolerance to those less secure than himself and his administration."

The latest example was his comment last week that HIV migrants should not be allowed, says the journal, whose editor, Dr Richard Horton, spoke at a conference on global health in Sydney this month. "To any visitor, Australian culture feels progressive and inclusive," The Lancet says. "This attractive exterior belies a strong undercurrent of political conservatism, which Howard is ruthlessly tapping into." The Lancet has a significant readership throughout the world and regularly takes a stand on key medical issues.

Source

Any lingering doubts about the political motivation behind their "600,000 Iraqi deaths" claim should now be completely at rest. The editor makes clear that for him the term "conservative" is a term of abuse. Definitely the impartial scientist!

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

In praise of the death penalty (if only we had it)

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy has admitted bashing and raping an 83-year-old grandmother - even as she prayed to God.
The boy approached the woman on a Bendigo walking track after drinking four or five bourbon and cola drinks, and said: "I think you can help me".
When the woman tried to hand over money, the boy kissed her aggressively, dragged her to the banks of a nearby creek, and raped and bashed her, the court heard.
The woman begged for mercy, screaming 'Help lord Jesus, help lord God, help me", but the boy told her: "I'm going to f--- you till you die".

Despite the woman's pleas, her attacker continued bashing her, biting her on the breast and gouging her eyes.
In an interview with police two days after the attack, he admitted he would have killed the grandmother had he not been caught.
When asked why he launched the savage attack, he said: "I don't know. That's the thing, I don't know why."

He told police: "I do stupid things when I'm drunk."
The boy, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to rape, making threats to kill, assault and intentionally causing serious injury.
Three years ago, the boy, from central Victoria, was found guilty in a Children's Court of four counts of rape and one of attempted sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16.

He was released on a 12-month supervision order without conviction.
news.com

in the first place, the judge who have him the original sentence (if "sentence" isn't too strong a word) ought to have been taken to the public square and flogged then run out of town. The bastard doesn't have to suffer the consequences of his bleeding-heart theories about rehabilitation--other people do. And have.
Second, this little piece of filth has given up any claim to be part of the human race. Whatever opponents of the death penalty may say, there's simply no good reason for the taxpayer to fund a comfortable life behind bars for it.
Could anybody seriously argue that this "boy" is ever likely to become a productive, decent member of society? That spending a cent of taxpayer's money on psych counselling, medical care, meals, heating and entertainment for it would be justified?
It's time the comfortable well-paid bureaucrats who make a living from crime (sure they do, no less than the criminals they serve and protect) woke up to the real world and started serving the public which pays the damn leeches.
update:
I should have made it clear that the 12 month supervision penalty applied to the original offences, when he was 12 years old, not the attack detailed above.

A Horror Story the Major Media Have Tried To Bury



These two [above] were out on a date minding their own business when they were car jacked and this is what happened to them. The animals pictured below raped Christopher Newsom, cut off his penis, then set him on fire and fatally shot him several times while they forced his girlfriend, Channon Christian, to watch. An even more cruel fate awaited her! Channon Christian, was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breast and put chemicals in her mouth . and then murdered her.



Compare and contrast this with the vast media circus over the Duke University "rape", where the black accuser came to no harm at all. More details here and here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Is the glass half empty or half full?

From AON, an Insurance and Risk management company in the UK February 12, 2007 -
Global warming and the fact that southern English soil is similar to that in Champagne has helped to grow critics’ recognition of the increasingly popular homegrown wine.

From The Argus September 22, 2006 -
The Mediterranean-style summer has boosted expectations of a fine crop among the country's small but burgeoning wine industry, with some vineyard owners predicting that 2006 could yield an English vintage to look back on with pride.

From Telegraph UK April 20, 2007 -
British vineyards had their most successful harvest in a decade last year, producing around three million bottles of wine. "Almost perfect" weather conditions in 2006, including a mild spring and a hot July, led to an early, bumper crop of grapes in England and Wales.

Changes in farming subsidies, and the warmer British summers of the last few years, are persuading more and more farmers to diversify into wine production.

"The official statistics for last year are not due out until next month, but we are expecting three million bottles to have been produced last year. This will mean more than a million more bottles than were produced in 2005."

The last time English producers broke the three million bottle barrier was after the hot summer of 1996, she said.

Some are less equal than others

Radio broadcaster Alan Jones has been fined $1000 and placed on a nine months good behaviour bond for breaking a law that prohibits the public naming of juveniles associated with court cases.

Harbour Radio, which operates 2GB, was fined $3000 and the Telegraph was fined $4000 by the magistrate.

However, Jones's lawyer Nancy Mikhaiel said this morning the broadcaster had acted in good faith, believing that the Telegraph had received consent from the young man before it had published his name.

Jones largely read out an article from The Daily Telegraph, which said MWK was 16 at the time. MWK is the younger brother of MSK, MAK, MRK and MMK who are serving various sentences for rape and sexual assault. MWK was not accused of sexual offences.

Bold mine. The journalist and editor of The Daily Telegraph go unpunished.

the creeping totalitarianism of the EU

Bloggers say EU law will end free speech

"British bloggers said yesterday that free speech on the internet is under threat from draconian new laws, which could see them jailed for up to three years.
Europe's justice ministers have agreed genocide denial and race hatred legislation that will outlaw remarks on the internet "carried out in a manner likely to incite violence or hatred".

The measures are contained in the European Union's Racism and Xenophobia Directive and could hit controversial European bloggers, even if their websites are hosted in America.

Chris Mounsey, the 29 year old behind The Devil's Kitchen blog, said: "There is potential for this to have worldwide application. Free speech is at the centre of blogging. Part of the reason bloggers can tell the truth is because it is difficult to pin them down. This law tries to do it."

The legislation goes beyond German or Austrian-style bans on denial of the Holocaust to cover those people who question the official history of recent conflicts in Africa and the Balkans.

telegraph.co.uk

The "official" history? According to whom? Since when--outside the USSR--was there such a thing?

Bonjour

Merci, bon apetit, blah blah, ok I’ll stop embarrassing myself, that’s all the French I know and care to know. Folks it looks like the mighty French are heading for the polls this weekend, freedom, democracy, voting and all that.
The main candidates in the French presidential election have held their final campaign rallies. A new opinion poll indicates that centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is still leading with 29%, ahead of the Socialist Segolene Royal at 25%.

Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero appeared with Segolene Royal in the south-western city of Toulouse. To the sound of thumping rock music and the cheers of about 15,000 supporters, she promised a "fairer and stronger" France.

"A France that does not discriminate against a job seeker because he does not have the right skin colour, the right name, the right address. This will be the fight."
I’m rooting for Segolene personally, some of you might already know why (wink, wink), but I think she is the best for France, she wants a fairer and stronger France, one free from hatred and bigotry, one with rights for all and social justice. I haven’t really heard what her policies are but being a socialist I’m sure she’ll be pushing for social justice, gay rights and gay marriage, free health care, free this and free that, banning guns and pork, social justice, human rights, money for the poor, social justice, cradle to grave. Being a socialist she’ll also ensure rights for workers, she’ll be lording over bosses as they deserve it, she won’t be going down the wretched work choices path that we in Australia are being cajoled down by that Conservative [hiss-boo] John Howard [hiss-boo].

Immigration and refugees will be looked after for once, social justice for all, not just the elites, not to mention France will set an example the rest of us can aspire to on global warming, she will abolish poverty and bring happiness and social justice to the French.

There is a plus for us at A Western Heart too, there is a certain socialist that frequents AWH, slipping in and out every now and then from the shadows, terrorizing us with his rapier-sharp intellect, I for one am happy to kick the collection tin off with a single-digit amount to ‘subsidize’ his relocation expenses to France. I often feel sorry that such a soul has to live amongst us money-grubbing capitalists so uncaring for social justice and we really shouldn’t force them to live amongst us knowing they are so unhappy.

We really should encourage such folks to answer their ‘call’ to join the cause for social justice and return Segolene’s embrace. Have I mentioned social justice already?

Update - FIRST ROUND RESULTS

Nicolas Sarkozy - 30.78%
Segolene Royal - 25.32%
Francois Bayrou - 18.47%
Jean-Marie Le Pen - 10.89%

It's pretty close, so it will be Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal fighting it out for the Presidential Election on the 6th of May. Even if Sarkozy wins, it seems socialism is still a force in France.

Kilimanjaro not melting after all



A fresh assessment suggests the famous ice fields on Africa's tallest mountain will be around for decades yet. Recent concerns that climate warming would rob Mount Kilimanjaro of all its glaciers within 20 years are overly pessimistic, say Austrian scientists. Their weather station data and modelling work indicate the tropical ice should last well beyond 2040.

Precipitation and not temperature is the key to the white peak's future, the University of Innsbruck-led team says. "About five years ago Kilimanjaro was being used as an icon for global warming. We know now that this was far too simplistic a view," said Thomas Moelg. "We have done different kinds of modelling and we expect the plateau glaciers to be gone roughly within 30 or 40 years from now, but we have a certain expectation that the slope glaciers may last longer," added colleague Georg Kaser.

The group's assessment was presented here at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly meeting. It acts as a counterpoint to the most doom-laden projections for the 5,895m-high (19,340ft) peak, which draws thousands of tourists intrigued by the idea of seeing ice just three degrees south of the equator.

The research team has been using three automated instrument stations on the top of the mountain to collect continuous data on temperature, pressure, solar radiation, humidity and wind. The recording effort was in position late last year to witness heavy snowfall, which will have led to a slight increase in Kilimanjaro's overall ice volume. This glacier growth is only temporary, however. The mountain's ice is dependent on the pulses of moist air that sweep across from the Indian Ocean.

Since the late 1800s, these have become less frequent, and the regular snows that would maintain the ice fields are now a rare occurrence in what has become a much drier climate in East Africa. Today, the total ice extent - on the slopes and on the plateau - is about 2.5 sq km, down from more than eight sq km in the early 1900s. Some scientists have drawn a fairly straight-line curve and forecast a rapid final retreat to a totally bare mountain. But the Innsbruck team is more optimistic about the medium term having now put real field measurements into a comprehensive modelling programme. "Glacier recession has been a feature on Kilimanjaro for more than 100 years, but this is the first time we really have a precise understanding of the physical processes that control the glacier-climate interaction on Africa's highest mountain," said Dr Moelg.

This work emphasises the significance of the lack of precipitation (250mm per year on the summit) versus temperature (a mean of -7C). It indicates that glacier mass loss would be about four times higher if precipitation decreased by 20% than if air temperature on the mountain rose by 1C. Furthermore, it suggests that two-thirds of the ice that is lost goes straight into the atmosphere through sublimation (the direct conversion of snow and ice to water vapour). "In recent years many people have talked about 'the melting glaciers of Kilimanjaro'. If one wants to be more precise, I would call it the 'evaporating glaciers of Kilimanjaro'," said Dr Moelg.

This confirms the view that the African peak does not play an important role as a reservoir for water, unlike in the Andes and the Himalayas where some lowland cities and agricultural systems are dependent on summer melt high in the mountains. "This is not a factor at all at Kilimanjaro and it never has been," said Professor Kaser. "If you brought all the remaining ice down to the Amboseli National Park and melted it, the water would only cover the park to a depth of one or one-and-a-half millimetres. There is nothing in terms of water up there."

The Innsbruck research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Otago, New Zealand, and the University of Massachusetts, US. The team stresses that the drying of the East African climate around Kilimanjaro may itself be a regional impact of global climate change.

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Well well

China will overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) either this year or next, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

The estimate is much firmer than the IEA's previous forecast, last November, that on current trends China would overtake the United States before 2010. "Either this year or next year," IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol told Reuters, in answer to the question of when China would overtake the United States.

Photo from REUTERS.

Well here's their chance to prove they care for the environment and it's not just about crippling the USA and hindering western human progress.

I want to see leftists, eco-terrorists like Greenpeace and the rest of the ratbags, gasbags and wastebags shift their incessant wailing and squealing away from the hated US to China. Come on now get your banners and placards and irritating petitions over to the Chinese embassy. Get them to conduct earth hours, earth days, change their light bulbs, walk to work, wind power, recycle their crap, plant trees, sign Kyoto, tear down their industries, wind farms and all that.

Come on get it moving, I hear ice falling somewhere, the planet needs saving.

"N*gger brown" gets another outing

David Irving famously described the color of his car as "n*gger brown" but he was doing it to provoke his critics. Some hapless Chinese manufacturers were not so aware, however:

"While all of America may be talking about the slurs of radio shock jock Don Imus, Canada is dealing with its own outrageous race scandal. But unlike Imus, no one's taken responsibility for the Canadian fiasco, which introduced a young girl to the "N" word that she had been lucky enough never to have heard before.

ABC News spoke to Doris and Douglas Moore of Toronto about what happened when they purchased a set of dark brown couches for $1300 and were told the couches were high-quality imports from Italy. But when they arrived, her 7-year-old daughter made a startling discovery. On the shipping label, next to "color," it read: Ni**er-Brown.

Moore immediately called the furniture store, Vanaik, from where she and her husband purchased the couches, but received no response. So she contacted a local television station, Toronto's City News, who tracked down the store manager. He told a reporter from the station he was sorry for the label but blamed the supplier, Paul Kumar of Toronto-based Cosmos Furniture, who also ships furniture to the United States. In media reports, Kumar said that the label was placed by the manufacturer, located in China, not Italy.

Kumar told ABC News that he spoke to the manufacturer and that the mistake was made "out of innocence." The slur was a translation problem.

Source

There is another unfortunate example of Chinglish here. I think my recently purchased brown futon is made in China too. See here. I must look for a label on it sometime.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Soft-spined State Government

Every now and then our state government will issue the usual proclamations about how safe we are and how they are so tough and the police have all the powers and families and all that. Usually when leftists tell you they’re looking out for your family, that’s code for, you’re going to get screwed.
A serial sex offender deemed likely to reoffend today walked free from a Sydney jail, with the NSW government refusing to concede it moved too late to try to keep him inside. Kenneth Davidson Tillman has a 30-year history of worsening sex offences, and has consistently refused to attend intensive treatment for sex offenders while in custody.

Three psychologists and a Supreme Court judge have all said they believe the 45-year-old is at high risk of reoffending. Tillman, who will be tracked using an electronic anklet, shielded his face from photographers as he was driven to freedom.
This fellow just finished serving a 10 year sentence for raping a 9 year old girl and no one will put their name to a document saying this piece of crap will not re-offend. He, himself will not make any effort to rehabilitate himself, not that I believe these fellows can be rehabilitated. So what does the NSW government do to look out for families, they sit on their bums for 6 months and just 7 days ago decide to try and keep this fellow behind bars.

So now, he is among us, we have no idea what he looks like or where he is living, just assurances that the already under-resourced police will watch him and protect us.

Just because our state government has gone to sleep rather than make lives of criminals painful and difficult doesn’t mean the citizens have also rolled over, here are two citizens with a bit of fire in the belly.
The victim of a violent carjacking last night says she knew something was wrong only a few blocks from her house, when she noticed she was being followed by a small white car. She says she is "alert to her surroundings'' because of her one-year-old $200,000 Porsche 911 Coupe.

"He grabbed hold of me and asked for the keys. I struggled and we basically tussled and he slammed me against the wall. "I fell on my knees and he yanked the keys out of my hand and tossed them to his friend."

She says she then bit him. "I was stupid," she said. "He could have hit me with the torch."
That 911 is a fine piece of automotive machinery and this woman sure is brave and has her wits about her, she did a lot of the right things when she initially got suspicious. Unfortunately she got caught after she drove into her remote controlled garage. Many people who have those don’t understand that just being inside your car doesn’t mean you’re safe, if a garage is accessible from outside, it’s like walking into a cage.
A security guard has shot at two men who confronted him as he was leaving a business premises in Sydney's south tonight. One of the men pointed a gun at the security guard, who then drew his own weapon and fired several shots, police said. The men fled the scene unharmed.
Good to see our fellow citizens are brave enough to put up a fight when the crims come knocking, it might just deter the scum the next time they feel like helping themselves to others property.