The Culture of Death Hires More Human Shields

lgf:
"Israel called off airstrikes on the homes of two militants Sunday after hundreds of Palestinians crowded around the buildings forming human shields, a new tactic that forced the army to re-evaluate its aerial campaign in the Gaza Strip."

This is getting too unbelievable - the Islamic culture of Death seems to be very excited about this new tactic of "hiring voluntary" human shields instead of just using human shields.

But the question is - what can Israel do? Should they bomb or should they risk suffering from more terrorist attacks as a result of not acting? Whatever Israel does it will suffer because of the way the international community reacts.
But what are those kids doing there? This perverted culture has educated these kids to die from the moment they were born. They have been told that there's no greater "honor" than doing God's will (which is pretty much defined by a bunch of extremists) even if that means dying for a terrorist. And their parents... What kind of a culture makes it possible for parents to be proud for sending their own underage kids to play catch with bombs?

"The Palestinians began to gather around the homes shortly after the Israeli army ordered occupants out of them. Israel routinely issues such warnings before attacking buildings that it says are used to store weapons, saying it wants to avoid casualties."

The Bruce had this to say at lgf:
"The Israeli/Jewish obsession with vying for the moral high ground has placed Israel and the Jewish community in mortal danger at the same time. It has neutered Israel's entire leadership on the proper way to defend their country--this is just the latest example. What country gives warnings to its enemies so they won't have to kill them?"

European Exodus

The Brussels Journal:
Bye bye Britain, Holland and Germany.


With the brightest minds gone who's going to be left behind to pay for the welfare state, for the sick, the elderly, the unemployed and so on? The unskilled immigrants who can't even support themselves and who are not even allowed to work?

What Went Wrong?

The question conservative Republicans have been asking after losing control of the Congress to the Democratic Party. Some theocratic Christians such as Rick Santorum got kicked out. Hopefully, this now means that there will be less attempts to fill the Constitution with useless marriage amendments and less attempts to introduce Creationism as an alternative to the theory of evolution.
However, the American economy is doing rather well although the US GDP growth slowed during the 3rd quarter. The unemployment rate has dropped to 4.4% and "better" jobs are being created to compensate for the loss of "worse" jobs which have been exported to 2nd and 3rd world countries. The deficit looks better than predicted. There's a chance the Democrats are now going to screw it all up by raising the minimum wage, by trying making health care more universal or by wasting more money on public education that already costs more money per student than its Nordic equivalent. Luckily, Bush still has the power to veto any attempts to raise taxes but Bush is not exactly a small-government man himself ("Compassionate" has turned out to mean "Socialist").

The small-government vote didn't support the Republican party that had drifted away from its small-government principles. Many Republicans and conservatives are now demanding that the party should return back to what it used to stand for. The Republicans campaigned successfully for the small-government agenda in 1994 and won. In two years they'll have a chance to repeat that success. Evangelicals, the so-called compassionate conservatives and other big-government Republicans need to be flushed out. The small-government wing of the party must take over and beat both the evangelicals/compassionates and the big-government Democrats. No one seriously wants to see the US repeating the social and economic mistakes Europe has been doing for the past few decades.

Links:
-Redstate
-Redstate
-Reason
-Cato

Greenpeace: Fuck mankind, save the fish!

Life beneath the sea will end as a result of overfishing and pollution - ceteris paribus - within fifty years. That's what a bunch of economists and ecologists concluded in Science magazine.
One of the problems is overfishing, a result of a scenario known as "Tragedy of the Commons". There's a solution to this - private ownership of means of production, that is the ocean, the fish and the risks. The government could spend its time and money patrolling the seas, overseeing that property rights are not being violated. Greed is not the problem here - it's the way society allows greed to come out. It's about the rules of the game.
Private ownership leads to preservation. Anyone who owns anything knows this. When you own a piece of fertile land you're driven to preserve it so that you can keep benefiting from it or to be able to sell it at a good price when the time comes. Of course, not all people are rational and not all people aim for long-term profits but most rational humans do and that's enough.
A step toward property rights and markets has improved the overfishing situation in countries like Iceland and New Zealand. The solution comes in the form of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs), a system where you're granted a specific quota by the government. You can then play with your quota the way you want, even sell it or buy more from those who own ITQs. Hopefully, this practice gains more popularity and helps introducing further liberalisations.

More here, here, here, here, here and here.

The bottom line? Let George Bush do the talking: "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

American Libertarians & more

At least they get media coverage - virtually impossible in Finland where there are maybe a handful of libertarians/classical liberals:

"Loretta Nall, the Libertarian Party's write-in candidate for governor of Alabama, is campaigning on her cleavage and hoping that voters will eventually focus on her platform."

"Her campaign is offering T-shirts and marijuana stash boxes adorned with a photo of her with a plunging neckline and the words: 'More of these boobs.'" -FoxNews

Cato released their study "Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors" which grades American governors according to their fiscal policies. As you might guess, Cato appreciates governors who cut taxes and spending. Something similar is needed in Finland but unfortunately there isn't such hostility toward taxes and spending here as there is in America.

Check my over a month old Vapaasana.net article on 9/11 conspiracies. Sorry my non-Finnish readers but the article is only in Finnish. I, of course, don't believe in any conspiracies.

I also started writing for World Community, a "multicultural" effort to bring a bunch of people together to write about world issues. The blog was started only a few months ago so take a look. Here's my take on China/Smash Asem (from 24th of this month).

Check Electoral-vote.com for up-to-date information on how the US midterm elections are coming along.

Edit: Oh and Happy Halloween! I know I'm a few hours late and we really don't celebrate Halloween in Finland. I celebrate Halloween simply by watching a Halloween episode of "Millennium" tv serie.