test

I just finished watching Brainwashing 101 , a "film showing how universities use tools such as "speech codes" to force political [liberal] views upon students". You can watch it free here . One of the things that caught my attention was a character in the film. Sukhmani Singh Khalsa pictured below. The first impression one would get from seeing Sukhmani would be to assume that he is a Muslim and liberal in his beliefs, given the similarities between his headgear (turban) and that of the Taliban of Afghanistan. The fact of the matter is that he is a Sikh and conservative. Sikh’s are not Muslims and have had a rather violent history with Muslims. Working as an Engineer at a wireless company and going to UCSD gives me the opportunity to interact with a lot of Sikhs. My officemate, who comes from a Sikh family, tells me that most people you meet in this country who have turbans are not Muslims, but Sikhs. The moral of the story is that the next time you meet someone wea...

"To take no notice of a violent attack is to strengthen the heart of the enemy. Vigour is valiant, but cowardice is vile." --Ancient Egyptian. The Pharaoh Seunsert III. cit. H.R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 161. According to a global poll more people throughout the world would vote for John Kerry over George W. Bush in the upcoming elections. I've often been asked how I could support a President who has the whole world protesting against him . There is the undeniable fact that no country on earth has freed more people than the United States since WWII. "Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Afghanistan, Grenada, Kuwait, South Korea, the former captive nations of Romania, Bulgaria, the Czechs, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania (all holding elections since the early 1990s), and the other former Soviet republics". And who has caused the most problems? Who gave us communism, which was the 20th century's greatest killer-killing many more than Hitler himself...

Max Borders, the project director and editor of aBetterEarth.org, lists the top ten .

That would be the Republican party . Over the last generation, reports Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, professional elites have become both "less nationalistic" and "more liberal than the American public. This is revealed by 20 public opinion surveys from 1974 to 2000." One authoritative study of a dozen different elites, including top civil servants, lawyers, religious authorities, military officers, entertainment moguls, union leaders, nonprofit managers, business executives and media chieftains, found that every one of these groups but two (businesspeople and the military) was twice to three times as liberal as the public at large. It's not as if the Democrats have taken over the top of the socioeconomic ladder and the Republicans the bottom. Rather, Democrats dominate at the very upper and lowest rungs, while Republicans find their following in the middle. As a result, the old way of thinking about U.S. politics--little-guy Democrats vs. wealt...

I must say that my favorite speech at the RNC was by far Arnold Schwarzenegger's. If you didn't get a chance to watch it I strongly recommend you do. If you can't watch it , at least read it . Here are a couple highlights, I was born in Europe ...and I've traveled all over the world. I can tell you that there is no place, no country, more compassionate more generous more accepting and more welcoming than the United States of America. To my fellow immigrants listening tonight, I want you to know how welcome you are in this party. We Republicans admire your ambition. We encourage your dreams. We believe in your future. One thing I learned about America is that if you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything. My fellow immigrants, my fellow Americans, how do you know if you are a Republican? I'll tell you how. If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government...then...

I have blogged on here before about how the elite left is still obsessed with Karl Marx and thinks he should be given another chance. This fact is even more mind boggling when you consider that economically speaking Karl Marx is seen as a complete failure. A simple basic economics course will dispel any hope that Karl Marx can be successfully implemented. He is such a failure that a couple economists are having a hard time listing his positives. To see this exchange read Brad Delongs post , Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley. He asks simply for five one-sentence bullet points listing his positives. Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, tries to list some positives here . Although he concludes with, Of course marxism, as a political program, remains dangerous nonsense. Marx's blind spots were enormous, and I still cannot understand how generations of the intelligentsia were taken in by the whole thing. Can somebody please convey this message to those ...

About a week and a half ago I was at a friend's wedding in Burbank California. This friend, and his family, have known me for almost ten years now. They know that I am very interested in politics and that I have strong opinions on the subject. Because of this, as soon as the celebrations started, I was informed by a couple of the family members that one of the guests at the wedding was a Political Science Professor and thought that we could probably have a good conversation on the topic. What resulted was a confirmation of the stereotype I have of "elite" liberals. The high level liberals that I believe run the Democrat Party. These characteristics are, Very weak understanding of basic Economics When I asked her what capitalism was she replied, "Greed". When I asked her what the main objective of the study of Economics was, she had no idea. She would say stuff like, "Greed", "Power", or even "To Make Money". Not once did she m...

With the recent resignation of Democrat New Jersey governor, announcing his homosexual affair , and the recent California Supreme Court decision voiding homosexual certificates I thought it a good time to discuss Presidential Candidate John Kerry's view on homosexual marriage. A few months ago there was a bill going through the senate that would have created a constitutional ammendment defining marriage as only between a man and a women. Kerry used the states right argument to argue against it. Arguing that we should let the states decide instead of forcing at the federal level. That's odd he would use that argument because when a bill came through the senate pushed through by Bill Clinton, called the Defense of Marriage Act, arguing for the exact same thing, Kerry voted against it . A bill that was passed with 85% of the senate voting in favor of it, with both Democrats and Republicans voting for it. However Kerry, being the extreme liberal that he is, voted against it. In c...

I mentioned earlier how the Democrats had appointed a religious advisor that believed 'Under God' in the pledge of allegience should be removed. Well the religious advisor just resigned, apparently she didn't like the attention she was getting. The Washington Times writes , The Democratic National Committee's director for religious outreach resigned after 13 days on the job because of "negative publicity" about her backing of a U.S. Supreme Court case seeking to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. The article also touches on what a problem this is for the Democrats, considering a significant amount of their base dislikes religion, the article continues, "I don't think the Democrats or the Kerry campaign quite know what to do with religion," said John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron who does extensive polling on religion and politics. "There is a certain fear on the part of t...

Walter Williams has an article detailing his experiences working with liberals, and how, in his opinion, they view minorities (he gives blacks as examples, but it could be applied to all minorities). He writes, On occasion, when the question-and-answer session began, I'd tell the press, "You can treat me like a white person. Ask hard, penetrating questions." The remark often brought uncomfortable laughter, but I was dead serious. If there is one general characteristic of white liberals, it's their condescending and demeaning attitude toward blacks. According to a Washington Times story (July 14, 2004), Democratic hopeful Sen. John Kerry, in a speech about education to a predominantly black audience, said that there are more blacks in prison than in college. "That's unacceptable, but it's not their fault," he said. Do you think Kerry would also say that white inmates are faultless? Aside from Kerry being factually wrong about the black prison populat...

It is a well known fact that a good percentage of the Democrat party completely dislikes having religion, or more specifically Christianity, involved in governement affairs in any way shape or form. Whether it's attacking religious symbols on public property, going after prayers on anything slightly related to government, removing displays of anything religious from public site, or refusing to vote for religious judges, liberals are on the offensive. We've heard two high profile cases of this recently, one with the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court, and the other attacking 'Under God' in the pledge of allegiance as unconstitutional. It was the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals, the most liberal court in the nation, and only federal court that has more judges nominated by Democrats than by Republicans, that declared 'Under God' in the pledge of allegiance as unconstitutional, although the Supreme Court later overturned the ruling. Some ...

Not speaking at the Democratic Convention, that's for sure. The Wall Street Journal has an article showing how the Democrats running the party are out of the mainstream even when compared against fellow Democrats. The article writes, Winning elections is, of course, what this week is all about, and the key question for the Democratic Party is whether its hard-core pro-choice stance is the way to keep on winning. The party is so dogmatic that it even opposes parental notification and a ban on partial-birth abortion, two issues that are favored by a majority of Americans. Seventeen Democrats voted with Republicans in 2003 to ban partial-birth abortion. According to a Zogby poll taken last month, 47% of Democrats oppose abortion except in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. Only 20% say abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during a pregnancy. To paraphrase a button being handed out at the pro-lifers' party this week: 47% of Democrats can...

Linda Chavez has an interesting article detailing some of the comments Andrew Stern, the president of the largest union in the AFL-CIO, himself a huge Democrat supporter, made with regard to the Democratic party, here are some quotes I found most interesting, "We[Democrat party] can't talk about education. . . We can't discuss when it is failing our members (children) in public schools in urban areas. You know, we're the experiment. Maybe vouchers aren't the only answer, but then, what is? I'm tired of hearing if we just pay teachers more, you know life will be terrific. It's a huge problem." There are two main reasons why I believe Democrats are against Vouchers. The first reason is because the privatization of public schools would practically destroy one of the Democrats most ardent supporters. The teachers union. The second reason is because Democrats don't understand basic principles of Economics. Andrew Stern touched on the first reason wit...

I just finished reading through a three part series named Pilgrim's Egress, which is an unfolding of some of the events in Duke University's Political Science Professor, Michael Munger's , life. Throughout this account, Professor Munger sheds light on the liberal mindset and some of its psychological makeup. This is important coming from Professor Munger, because he is speaking from the lions den itself. It is an undeniable fact that academia, especially in the social sciences, is dominated by liberals. So Professor Munger, being a Duke University Poli Sci professor, comes from a unique perspective of being right in the heart of liberalism. I want to post some quotes that I thought were particularly telling. However, I hope this doesn't give the impression that this is all Pilgrim's Egress is about, it is not. It is a definitely worth reading and should be read in full/completely. Especially the section on his Cuba trip, and the Economic critique of that country....

Thomas Sowell continues his discussion from earlier on the grand fallacy. He defines the grand fallacy as, Too many people in the media, in academia, and even in courts of law, act as if numbers plus a preconception equals proof. The preconception is that various groups -- by race, sex, or whatever -- would be evenly represented in occupations or institutions if it were not for discrimination. His basic point is that sometimes there are much deeper reasons than the easy solution of discrimination. Reasons that we as a society may now be blind too.

Thomas Sowell has an article on the possible cause for what some people see as sex discrimination, which is related to the Wal Mart Lawsuit, he writes, The grand fallacy of our times is that various groups would be equally represented in institutions and occupations if it were not for discrimination.

Thomas Sowell has a piece on the editorial of the Wall Street Journal completely bashing Ralph Nader as being completely out of the mainstream with regard to Economics, the article states, Some years ago, the distinguished international-trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati was visiting Cornell University, giving a lecture to graduate students during the day and debating Ralph Nader on free trade that evening. During his lecture, Prof. Bhagwati asked how many of the graduate students would be attending that evening's debate. Not one hand went up. Amazed, he asked why. The answer was that the economics students considered it to be a waste of time. The kind of silly stuff that Ralph Nader was saying had been refuted by economists ages ago. The net result was that the audience for the debate consisted of people largely illiterate in economics and they cheered for Mr. Nader. The article goes on to give basic fundamental economic principles that the public is ignorant about, and how those p...

In another article , Robert J. Cihak, M.D., of the Discovery Institute and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, goes into detail about the realities of one of the most socialized healthcare system in the world, Canada's. The article writes, Comparing Canada with other industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that provide universal access to health care, a study released by The Fraser Institute in May revealed that Canada spends more on its system than other nations while ranking among the lowest in several key indicators, such as access to physicians, quality of medical equipment, and key health outcomes. The study identifies one of the major reasons for this discrepancy. Unlike other countries in the study that outperformed Canada - such as Sweden, Japan, Australia, and France - Canada outlaws virtually all private health care. If the government says it provides a medical service, it's ille...

Walter Williams has a good article explaining the natural consequences that follow the "free health care" system in Canada. He writes, Health care can have a zero price to the user, but that doesn't mean it's free or has a zero cost. The problem with a good or service having a zero price is that demand is going to exceed supply. When price isn't allowed to make demand equal supply, other measures must be taken. One way to distribute the demand over a given supply is through queuing -- making people wait. Another way is to have a medical czar who decides who is eligible, under what conditions, for a particular procedure -- for example, no hip replacement or renal dialysis for people over 70 or no heart transplants for smokers. This should have been easy to predict. It has been an Economic axiom for a long time now that price controls will result in surpluses or shortages depending on which direction the price controls are made. If prices are kept from falling to...