(no subject)

Sometimes it pays to take things personally and judge groups according to their members. Back in 1994, I had a dreadful time with a person of whom I will say nothing more than that she would have made a saint feel murderous. And no, it was not a sentimental relationship or anything of the kind. We just lived in the same shared house. But that is a test of character; short of working together or having a relationship, there is no faster and more bruising way to find out all the bad things about someone. It turned out that this odious person, who was personally dedicated to the unhappiness and ruination of others (and whom I found out to have serious issues of her own which she was too cowardly to confront) was a devoted member of Amnesty International. Until then I had been sympathetic to the organization, but from then on I had a strong prejudice against it: if that, I felt, was the kind of member it attracted...

Since then it has become clear that AI is no better than a Noam Chomski fan club with anti-American lobbying facilities. I was not in the least surprised when it adopted abortion as a leading cause, after steering clear of that particular rat trap for decades. And whether or not it ever was deserving of respect, at least one blogger I read felt that the rotting of AI became visible in the early nineties. Right! The person in question was also a keen reader of the New Internationalist - the archetype of a Blame-the-West-for-everything rag. So I had a little reason, beyond personal revulsion, to find her politics dubious.

Guest article by Dr Theron Bowers on the Fort Hood shootings

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(no subject)

One thing that democratic countries need is an independent and possibly unelected - and if not, elected for life - body of accountants charged with scrutinizing the budget, insuring that existing statutory liabilities are covered, and rejecting improperly costed expenditure proposals. No law should be passed which is either not provided for from existing funds or else takes away from funds set aside for other purposes. Some European countries, including Italy, have a Court of Accounts - a tribunal-like body that assesses state accounts - but its powers are limited, and it has frequently proved incapable of stopping disastrous drives in public spending.