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"Cannot Be Saved by World's Rich" by Marian L. Tupy (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind the rest of the world in most indicators of human well-being. It scored a mere 0.472 on the United Nations' 2006 Human Development Index, which is measured on a scale from 0 to 1, with higher values denoting higher standards of living. The United States, in contrast, scored 0.948.
For decades, many development experts have advocated more aid and debt relief as solutions to African poverty."
"But aid has failed to stimulate growth in Africa. Between 1975 and 2005, for example, per capita aid to Africa averaged $24.60 per year. By contrast, in China, it averaged $1.50 and in India $2. Over the same period, Chinese and Indian incomes, adjusted for inflation and purchasing-power parity, rose by 888 percent and 174 percent respectively. In Africa, incomes fell by 5 percent.
Moreover, aid has encouraged waste and corruption. Inadvertently, it also has financed "around 40 percent of Africa's military spending," according to Paul Collier of Oxford University."
"Africa remains the poorest and least economically free region on Earth. The G-20 should do all it can to help Africa integrate with the rest of the world. It should eliminate remaining restrictions on African exports and end its farm subsidies. Africans, however, will have to make most of the changes needed to tackle African poverty."
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Wild Wisconsin: Supreme Court Nomoniee
Wild Wisconsin: Supreme Court Nomoniee: "One standard: Do you support the constitution and have the qualifications for the job?
Avoid: Litmus tests. Be it issue, race, creed, or party. Please can we move past nominating people for the color of their skin or gender?"
Well said!
Avoid: Litmus tests. Be it issue, race, creed, or party. Please can we move past nominating people for the color of their skin or gender?"
Well said!
"The Immigration Fallacy" by Will Wilkinson (Cato Institute: Commentary)
"The Immigration Fallacy" by Will Wilkinson (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Nearly half the denizens of Canada's most populous metropolis (Toronto) were born outside the nation's borders—47 percent according to the 2006 census, and the number is rising. This makes Toronto, the fifth biggest city in North America, also the most diverse city in North America. Neither Miami, Los Angeles, nor New York City can compete with Toronto's cosmopolitan credentials.
Here is what Toronto is: the fifth most livable city in the world. So said The Economist Intelligence Unit in a report last year drawing on indicators of stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure. (The Economist's world champion of livability, Vancouver, harbors a treacherous 40 percent foreign-born population.) Toronto is wealthy, healthy, well-educated, and much safer than any sizable American city. In 2006, its murder rate was 2.6 per 100,000 residents, which makes it less than half as deadly as Des Moines, Iowa. The most culturally mixed city on the continent truly is one of Earth's closest approximations of urban paradise."
"The United States, this fabled land of immigrants, has fallen dismally far behind countries like Australia and Canada in openness to immigration. The Statue of Liberty may as well be moved to Vancouver's English Bay where the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" are now rather more welcome than in New York harbor."
Here is what Toronto is: the fifth most livable city in the world. So said The Economist Intelligence Unit in a report last year drawing on indicators of stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure. (The Economist's world champion of livability, Vancouver, harbors a treacherous 40 percent foreign-born population.) Toronto is wealthy, healthy, well-educated, and much safer than any sizable American city. In 2006, its murder rate was 2.6 per 100,000 residents, which makes it less than half as deadly as Des Moines, Iowa. The most culturally mixed city on the continent truly is one of Earth's closest approximations of urban paradise."
"The United States, this fabled land of immigrants, has fallen dismally far behind countries like Australia and Canada in openness to immigration. The Statue of Liberty may as well be moved to Vancouver's English Bay where the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" are now rather more welcome than in New York harbor."
"The US Should Cut Military Spending in Half" by Benjamin H. Friedman (Cato Institute: Commentary)
"The US Should Cut Military Spending in Half" by Benjamin H. Friedman (Cato Institute: Commentary): "[C]onsider how much we spend on defense relative to both our purported rivals and our past. Our defense budget is almost half the world's, even leaving out nuclear weapons, the wars, veterans, and homeland security. It is also more than we spent at any point during the cold war."
"There are no enemies to justify such spending. Invasion and civil war are unthinkable here. North Korea, Syria, and Iran trouble their citizens and neighbors, but with small economies, shoddy militaries, and a desire to survive, they pose little threat to us. Their combined military spending is one-sixtieth of ours.
Russia and China are incapable of territorial expansion that should pose any worry, unless we put our troops on their borders. China's defense spending is less than one-fifth of ours. We spend more researching and developing new weapons than Russia spends on its military. And with an economy larger than ours, the European Union can protect itself. Our biggest security problem, terrorism, is chiefly an intelligence problem arising from a Muslim civil war. Our military has little to do with it."
"There are no enemies to justify such spending. Invasion and civil war are unthinkable here. North Korea, Syria, and Iran trouble their citizens and neighbors, but with small economies, shoddy militaries, and a desire to survive, they pose little threat to us. Their combined military spending is one-sixtieth of ours.
Russia and China are incapable of territorial expansion that should pose any worry, unless we put our troops on their borders. China's defense spending is less than one-fifth of ours. We spend more researching and developing new weapons than Russia spends on its military. And with an economy larger than ours, the European Union can protect itself. Our biggest security problem, terrorism, is chiefly an intelligence problem arising from a Muslim civil war. Our military has little to do with it."
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Shooting Back: Guns in Churches
Shop.WND.com - A WorldNetDaily Exclusive!: "'Grenades were exploding in flashes of light. Pews shattered under the blasts, sending splinters flying through the air,' he recalls of the July 25, 1993, St. James Church Massacre. 'An automatic assault rifle was being fired and was fast ripping the pews -- and whoever, whatever was in its trajectory -- to pieces. We were being attacked!'
But van Wyk was not defenseless that day. Had he been unarmed like the other congregants, the slaughter would have been much worse.
'Instinctively, I knelt down behind the bench in front of me and pulled out my .38 special snub-nosed revolver, which I always carried with me,' he writes in 'Shooting Back,' a book published for the first time in America by WND Books. 'I would have felt undressed without it. Many people could not understand why I would carry a firearm into a church service, but I argued that this was a particularly dangerous time in South Africa.'
During that Sunday evening service, the terrorists, wielding AK-47s and grenades, killed 11 and wounded 58. But the fact that one man – van Wyk – fired back, wounding one of the attackers and driving the others away."
But van Wyk was not defenseless that day. Had he been unarmed like the other congregants, the slaughter would have been much worse.
'Instinctively, I knelt down behind the bench in front of me and pulled out my .38 special snub-nosed revolver, which I always carried with me,' he writes in 'Shooting Back,' a book published for the first time in America by WND Books. 'I would have felt undressed without it. Many people could not understand why I would carry a firearm into a church service, but I argued that this was a particularly dangerous time in South Africa.'
During that Sunday evening service, the terrorists, wielding AK-47s and grenades, killed 11 and wounded 58. But the fact that one man – van Wyk – fired back, wounding one of the attackers and driving the others away."
Montana Firearms Freedom Act
Montana Firearms Freedom Act
"AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA; AND PROVIDING AN APPLICABILITY DATE."
This should be interesting.
"AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA; AND PROVIDING AN APPLICABILITY DATE."
This should be interesting.
Teen Homeschooler Arrested Under Patriot Act
Campaign For Liberty — Teen Homeschooler Arrested Under Patriot Act: "The Act's defenders denied it was ever abused (although the first man imprisoned under it was an innocent man punished despite his judge not thinking he deserved the sentence). Now the Act is being turned against ordinary Americans, and even teenage homeschoolers:
This latest outrage just demonstrates why government can never be trusted with any powers that compromise its constitutional limits. Even if you somehow trust the administration currently in power, that can change every four or eight years."
This latest outrage just demonstrates why government can never be trusted with any powers that compromise its constitutional limits. Even if you somehow trust the administration currently in power, that can change every four or eight years."
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
FOXNews.com - Nation's First Face Transplant Recipient - Shotgun Blast Victim - Shows Off Her New Face - Incredible Health
FOXNews.com - Nation's First Face Transplant Recipient - Shotgun Blast Victim - Shows Off Her New Face - Incredible Health: "'I guess I'm the one you came to see today,' the 46-year-old Ohio woman said at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where the groundbreaking operation was performed. But 'I think it's more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person's face.'"
Wonderful story and medical effect! This also shows how much good donating can do!
Wonderful story and medical effect! This also shows how much good donating can do!
The Hippocratic oath gets in the way — Cranach: The Blog of Veith
The Hippocratic oath gets in the way — Cranach: The Blog of Veith: "Ezekiel Emanuel sees the Hippocratic Oath as one factor driving “overuse” of medical care. He is a policy adviser in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a brother of Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff.
Dr. Emanuel argues that “peer recognition goes to the most thorough and aggressive physicians.” He has lamented that doctors regard the “Hippocratic Oath’s admonition to ‘use my power to help the patient to the best of my ability and judgment’ as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others.”"
When government controls health care it must ration care. That is a high price for "free"
Dr. Emanuel argues that “peer recognition goes to the most thorough and aggressive physicians.” He has lamented that doctors regard the “Hippocratic Oath’s admonition to ‘use my power to help the patient to the best of my ability and judgment’ as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others.”"
When government controls health care it must ration care. That is a high price for "free"
Why Circuit City Failed, and Why B&H Thrives, Managing Technology Article - Inc. Article
Why Circuit City Failed, and Why B&H Thrives, Managing Technology Article - Inc. Article: "You know what? I don't buy the argument that the economy caused Circuit City's failure. Take one look at its competitors, and you know that the market for consumer electronics and computer equipment remains strong, even in this economy. You can walk into any Apple Store and see large crowds of people lining up to buy computers and iPods. But enough has been said about how wonderful Apple is. I want to tell you about another first-class consumer electronics retailer -- a much smaller business you probably haven't been to, unless you live in New York City or are a professional photographer or an avid hobbyist. It's called B&H."
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