The most outstanding political book of 2008 has been Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. It shoots to pieces the prevailing ideas of who is on “the left” and who is on “the right.” It can become especially relevant in the coming year, if the new administration goes further with the government interventions in the economy begun by the outgoing administration — the kind of economic policies that were at the heart of fascism. Thomas Sowell.

Man kan læse en dansk anmeldelse af bogen i den seneste udgave af Libertas, der udkom nov/dec 2008.

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years — including the present year — denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis. It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today’s financial crisis. Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago. Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration “right-wing ideology” of “de-regulation” that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter? -- Thomas Sowell

Britain’s Channel 4 has produced a devastating documentary titled “The Great Global Warming Swindle.” It has apparently not been broadcast by any of the networks in the United States. But, fortunately, it is available on the Internet.

These include scientists from MIT and top-tier universities in a number of countries. Some of these are scientists whose names were paraded on some of the global warming publications that are being promoted in the media — but who state plainly that they neither wrote those publications nor approved them. ...

- Read more in the article The Gloabal Warming Swindle by Thomas Sowell

See the documentary here.

BESØG KYOTO KRITIK

How many times, in its thousands of years of history, has Europe gone 60 years without a major war, as it has since World War II? That peace has been due to American nuclear weapons, which was all that could deter the Soviet Union's armies from marching right across Europe to the Atlantic Ocean.

Having overwhelming military force on your side, and letting your enemies know that you have the guts to use it, is being genuinely anti-war. Chamberlain's appeasement brought on World War II and Reagan's military buildup ended the Cold War...

- Det skriver Thomas Sowell i kommentaren - Where is the West?

Artiklen handler også om de former for historieforfalskning, som man udsættes for på offentlige undervisningsanstalter - eksempelvis, når det gælder slaveriets historie, hvor venstrefløjen på helt absurd vis har forsøgt at kæde slaveri sammen med skabelsen af den amerikanske nation; vel at mærke på trods af at opgøret med slaveriet netop var del af de selvsamme friheds-ideer, der også var grundlaget for den amerikanske revolution.

Vil man læse mere om det sidste emne anbefales i øvrigt filosoffen Andrew Bernsteins bog - the Capitalist Manifesto, der udkom sidste år, og som fortjener at blive læst og distribueret ikke mindst på Statskundskab - som en modvægt til facinationen af kremlologi.

The green ideology of today, like the red ideology of the past, takes it for granted that other people do not have the same rights as the new nomenklatura.

Where the new nomenklatura enjoy a particular lifestyle in a particular community, then the power of government is used to preserve that lifestyle and freeze that community where it is, even if that means freezing out other people who may not have the same money or the same lifestyle preferences.

- Det skriver Thomas Sowell i artiklen The New Nomenklatura.

Det med at fastfryse og sætte udviklingen i stå gælder i øvrigt ikke blot for politikken i Europa og Nordamerika, men også for Afrika. Se Den grønne død samt Economist?.

Politik handler ikke mindst om konsekvenser. - Så hvad er konsekvensen af den aktuelle våbenhvile mellem Hizbolla og de israelske styrker?

It will give Hezbollah a breather from Israeli retaliation and allow them time to get new shipments of military equipment from Iran, rebuild their military infrastructure and prepare for the next round of attacks on Israel. - Det konstaterer Thomas Sowell i artiklen Will cease-fires never cease?

Flere artikler af Thomas Sowell

Mere om Israel, Hizbolla og Libanon her.

"We are just the first wave of Islamic warriors from Iran," said Amir Jalilinejad, chairman of the Student Justice Movement, a nongovernment group that helped recruit the fighters. "More will come from here and other Muslim nations around the world. Hezbollah needs our help."

Some bowed before a memorial to Hezbollah-linked suicide bombers who carried out the 1983 blast at Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen. An almost simultaneous bombing killed 56 French peacekeepers.

Det skriver Associated Press. (Historien er fundet på Dollars & Crosses)

Aktuelt har den franske udenrigsminister sagt rosende ord om terrorsponsoren og revolutionseksportøren Iran - jævnfør Jacob McHangamas artikel på Punditokraterne.

På Skattetryk.dk findes mere dokumentation om alliancen mellem store dele af venstrefløjen i Danmark og diverse diktatorer, og diktatoraspiranter - ligefra Svend Auken og Castro til Enhedslisten og Hizbolla. Fællesnævneren er blandt andet kollektivisme - jævnfør Evo Morales nationaliseringer i Bolivia og Ayatolla Khomenis i Iran efter 1979. Målsætningen i Danmark for kollektivisterne på venstrefløjen er dermed den samme; den eneste forskel er sproget samt midlerne, der tages i brug.

Læs dagens kommentar: Israel må forsvare sig.

Læs også Thomas Sowell: Is It Time for a Cease-Fire?

De nye krigshandlinger i Mellemøsten har slidt lakken endegyldigt af, hvad der måtte være tilbage af den yderste venstrefløjs taktiske tilbageholdenhed. Nu bryder alle dæmninger. Hadet og råbet om død og ødelæggelse over den jødiske stat står nøgent tilbage. Den så fredselskende venstrefløj bekender kulør - og går hånd i hånd med islamismens yderfløj.

Hvordan man så får det til at hænge sammen, når man nu véd, hvad islamisterne i øvrigt står for, må høre til på den lange liste af venstrefløjens forklaringsproblemer. - Det kan man læse i dagens leder i Jyllands-Posten.

Læs også Thomas Sowell - Peacemongers and War.