Farmworker Farce

The shortage simply doesn’t exist.

Time and again we hear from the agribusiness lobbyists about the pressing need for a continuous flow of foreign peasants to pick vegetables. The most sweeping claim was from lobbyist Sharon Hughes: “We are either going to have our food produced by foreign workers here in the United States, or the farming process will move to foreign countries.”
[snip]
Since only two percent of Americans still work in agriculture, many of the rest of us fall for this baloney. The research in this area, however, paints a very different picture. In a new paper, published by the Center for Immigration Studies, agricultural economist Philip Martin of the University of California, Davis, finds “little evidence” to support claims of a labor shortage on America’s farms.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjEwM2RmZTBmZDU2MzI1YTEyOTRkZjk4MWE2NDE0NjE=

Don't listen to Labour - tax cuts do work

All my adult life I have lived with Labour lies about tax cuts. Their cry is always the same. Tax cuts are impossible in a civilised society. They mean less revenue for the state, which means sacked teachers, unemployed doctors, fewer nurses. I am amazed anyone still takes such arrant twaddle seriously. Cuts in tax rates on individual and company income nearly always produce more revenue, not less.

[taxes kept by citizens & companies are invested, expecting a return. taxes taken by the government are merely consumed.]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/08/28/do2803.xml

Pricing oil in dollars

Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, neither of whom has ever demonstrated much economic sophistication, contended at the recent OPEC Summit that the weak dollar is at the root of high oil prices.
[snip]
While it is true that when the dollar declines relative to the euro and other currencies oil prices in dollars rise faster than in those other currencies, prices are determined by supply and demand. A move to price oil in terms of a market basket of other currencies or in euros would not in itself affect the price of oil.
[snip]
The recent decline in the value of the dollar seems to have unnerved some Americans and emboldened less economically sophisticated enemies, but it is a boon for American exporters, and underlies our continuing economic strength.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/pricing_oil_in_dollars.html

Edwards Would Garnish Wages to Force People into Insurance Scheme

Welcome to the brave new world of John Edwards. One of the dirty little secrets of the debate over health insurance is that around 15 million younger adults choose not to carry any. Never fear, John Edwards will save these miscreants from their own folly by garnishing their wages and forcing them into his planned universal health care nightmare: Under the Edwards plan, when Americans file their income taxes, they would be required to submit a letter from an insurance provider confirming coverage for themselves and their dependents.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/edwards_would_garnish_wages_to.html

'Changing border will be dangerous'

The defense establishment is fiercely opposed to a United Nations initiative to redraw Israel's border with Lebanon and ultimately revoke Israeli sovereignty over the Shaba Farms. A UN cartographer is expected to visit the Shaba Farms, also known as Mount Dov, in the coming weeks, sent by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to review the current border route along the 25-square-kilometer area located between Lebanon and the Golan Heights.

[betrayed again: it's elevated land, previously used to shell Israel]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187502427231&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Chinese see [US] military dependence on computers as weakness

Beijing - Diplomatic tension this week over reported Chinese computer attacks on German government networks comes as security experts warn that China is expanding its capacity to wage cyberwar as part of its rapid military buildup. U.S. and other foreign military analysts say that Chinese defense planners have identified the heavy dependence on computers of most modern military forces as a potential weakness that could be exploited in a conflict.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/news/cyber.php

Britain’s Anti-Semitic Turn

In August 2006, as the war in Lebanon raged, a gang of teenage girls confronted 12-year-old Jasmine Kranat and a friend on a London bus. ''Are you Jewish?'' they demanded. They didn’t hurt the friend, who was wearing a crucifix. But they subjected Jasmine, a Jew, to a brutal beating—stomping on her head and chest, fracturing her eye socket, and knocking her unconscious. (Snip) According to the police, Jews are four times more likely to be attacked because of their religion than are Muslims.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_4_anti-semitism.html

Forget about songs under Sharia

Marc Sheppard adapts a beloved song from The Sound of Music to discuss Sharia Law. But he missed one particularly apt element of that code of behavior. Sweetness & Light calls our attention to the prohibition of music itself, at least north of te border.

Today’s lesson comes from the Ifta Department of the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians:

Is it permissible to play music/instruments and songs?
Answer [snip]

The use of the drum is allowed on the occasion of a wedding, wedding feast (walimah) and both days of Eid. This is concerning the drum which has no tinkle. The drum which has the tinkle is not permitted to be used. Playing of all other instruments is not allowed.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5854

Iraqi civilian killings drop sharply in November

BAGHDAD - The number of civilians killed in violence throughout Iraq fell this month to the lowest level in nearly two years, according to government statistics obtained by Reuters on Friday. The data showed 538 civilians were killed in November, down 29 percent from October. The statistics are compiled by the health, interior and defense ministries, and represent the best Iraqi count of the bloodshed.
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL30676226