Free Republic

Every once in a while I just get lucky. I make an offhanded remark on the air that sends the looters into such paroxysms of angst and outrage that I get about a weeks worth of a free ride in blogs, columns and radio and TV shows.

AIG needs its money for its own problems, people, and doesn't want to have to share with insurance claimants! That's why they've fought every request from John Woodson, a man who lost a leg, an eye, and 70% of the vision in the remaining eye while working in Iraq. He told ABC News, "You constantly are worried about who is going to pay these bills, who is going to take care of me? Because you can't rely on AIG to come through for you. I don't understand how a company of their size and their magnitude, with government bailouts and...

Leave it to a liberal to claim that Americans are "cheapskates" because our government does not spend enough money on foreign aid. In the L.A.Times for April 13th, that is just what we are treated to with Rosa Brooks' screed titled, "To the rest of the world, we're cheapskates" and subtitled, "The U.S. international affairs budget -- which helps fight AIDS, poverty and more -- is just 1% of total spending." But, by attacking our country over its record on charity and foreign aid spending, Brooks proves that she neither understands the nature of American generosity, nor the American character....

Rich industrialised nations must take the lead in cutting greenhouse gases since they bear the “unshirkable responsibility” for causing global warming, a Chinese official said on Tuesday. The comments by a foreign ministry spokeswoman underscore China’s determination not to allow international action on climate change to undermine its economic development. Rapid economic growth, a huge population and inefficient industry have made China the world’s second largest carbon emitter after the US – new data show that power generating capacity in the country in 2006 expanded by an amount equal to the entire capacity of the UK and Thailand combined. But...

When the U.N.'s Jan Egeland called the U.S. "stingy" with foreign aid a couple of years back, he was playing to a stereotype promoted by those who want governments to redistribute global incomes. He was also wrong, and now we have the data to prove it. The Hudson Institute recently released the 2006 Index of Global Philanthropy, the first comprehensive report on international aid by private institutions and individuals in the U.S. The index shows that millions of Americans give to the world's poor at a rate that is anything but "stingy." Voluntary giving by Americans dwarfs government aid the...

America has a split personality when it comes to paying for a just, free society. On the one hand, there's almost universal acceptance of the sacrifices needed to defend the nation from military and terrorist threats. This has created a bipartisan consensus to devote $453 billion, well over half of all discretionary federal spending this year, to defense. Most even accept the ultimate sacrifice of our brave military servicemen and women, who give their lives defending the nation. The question is, why accept the costs of defending our country from external threats while turning our backs on domestic programs that...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A year of disasters around the world sparked an unprecedented outpouring of aid, but richer nations still are not giving enough money to tackle lingering humanitarian crises, the U.N. humanitarian chief said. Jan Egeland said, for example, that as many people die in Congo every eight months as in last year's Indian Ocean tsunami. He also criticized political leaders for failing to take action to end the wars that create humanitarian crises or invest in disaster prevention to mitigate the impact of earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. The work of U.N. and other relief workers in conflict-wracked...

The United Nations attacked international donors today for a shortfall in funding for victims of the South Asian earthquake that has left relief agencies struggling with a logistical nightmare worse than the Boxing Day tsunami. As a 12-year-old boy was confirmed as the first British fatality from the quake, Jan Egeland, the UN's disaster relief chief, gave warning that the death toll in the earthquake could rise above 100,000 because of a lack of aid. Mr Egeland told a news conference in Geneva: "We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare, ever. We thought the tsunami was bad -...

...Mr. Bush said the U.S. would "absolutely" drop its system of farm subsidies if the European Union eliminated its $40 billion a year Common Agricultural Policy. Now, that's a radical idea. It certainly trumps the calls by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others to double official development aid to sub-Saharan Africa or to forgive more debt. Getting rid of U.S. and EU farm subsidies -- and the protectionism they entail -- would do far more to address what liberals like to call a "root cause" of poverty. Too many African exports, particularly farm commodities, are kept out of Western...

PRIVATE American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns. Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government. American churches, synagogues and...

On the eve of the G-8 Summit, ex-president Bill Clinton is telling European audiences that the U.S. is stingy with its foreign aid dollars - and that Americans think they contribute more than they actually do. "In America, for example, we have always been hampered in getting adequate budgets for international assistance by the fact that the American people believe we give much more than we do," he told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday. "They think we give about 3 percent of GDP," the ex-president continued. "They think we give 10-15 percent of the budget. They think we ought to...

UN laments donor nations' lack of generosity worldwide UNITED NATIONS (AFP) Mar 14, 2005 UN Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland complained Monday of lack of speed and generosity in most traditional donors' giving to humanitarian efforts worldwide. Egeland said he would meet with United Nations donor countries throughout Monday afternoon "to express the deep frustration of the humanitarian community" in the face of the limited resources being made available to them. "We are sent into battle against disasters and the threat of famine with no ammunition," he complained, speaking to AFP in an interview. The worldwide humanitarian...

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. has already committed $350 million to the tsunami relief efforts underway in Southeast Asia and President Bush wants Congress to approve another $600 million, but a humanitarian aid expert Friday nevertheless asserted that "when it comes to relative generosity, [America has] a long way to go." The remarks by Dr. Susan Rice, a senior fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., were similar to those made by United Nations Undersecretary for Human Services Jan Egeland, who shortly after the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami declared that America's early response to the crisis was "stingy."...

Bush pledges another US$600m in tsunami aid PRESIDENT George W. Bush has pledged a massive US$600 million (S$991 million) boost in United States financial aid to countries affected by December's tsunami. This would take the total of Washington's relief package from US$350 million to US$950 million and make it the largest single donor nation. The increased funds will be earmarked principally for reconstruction efforts in the worst affected countries, among them Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. President Bush, who made the announcement on Wednesday, said: 'We will use these resources to provide assistance and to work with the affected nations...

Bored Boy Triggers Terror Alert in Norway The Associated Press OSLO, Norway A bored 12-year-old boy passing time by trying out his new balaclava triggered a terrorism alert at a southern Norway airport.Glen Tommy Hvorup was waiting in a car for a delayed passenger at the Sandefjord Airport, about 60 miles south of Oslo, when he got fidgety, the local newspaper reported Monday.(more)

Norway's wolf claim unsupported Scandinavian wolf researchers say that Norwegian authorities have no scientific basis for their claim that the ongoing cull of five wolves will not threaten Norway's wolf population. Here the first of five wolves was shot in Koppang on Jan. 16. The second wolf shot was a fertile female from a protected zone, shot by mistake. Norway's claim that killing five of its roughly 20 wolves poses no danger is based on an argument that Norway and Sweden have a shared wolf population of a bit over 100 animals. Experts dispute the Norwegian standpoint, forskning.no, the web...

<p>Indonesian Muslims aren't really making a big deal one way or the other about the tsunami relief offered them. What's noticeable is what's *not* been said.</p> <p>For example, soon after the US pledged its $350 million and a few days after the carrier Abe Lincoln was flying balls to the wall missions, a taxi driver struck up a conversation with my wife. I wasn't there. Jeane reported that after the usual small talk about the grave situation in Aceh province, where it happened, the driver mentioned something about the USA not giving much money until after the USA had been called out on their "small" initial pledge. This was the theme of that Scandinavian UN employee who said we were "stingy". Remember, the driver couldn't have known Jeane's husband was a Westerner, let alone an American.</p>

26. Januar 2005 Veterinarian dispute hardens The conflict between Norway's veterinarians and the Department of Agriculture has worsened, after Tuesday's negotiations failed to reach an agreement on a new emergency duty rota. The Department is now trying to get veterinarians to do night duty outside a union agreement. As of January 1st there is no longer a veterinarian emergency on-call service, and there have been cases where farm animals have died outside office hours, because a veterenary has not been available, NRK reports. The Department is now trying to get veterinarians to agree to a voluntary emergency call service, outside...

A 52-year-old Norwegian citizen is being held in the high security prison Belmarsh outside of London, accused by British police of securing radioactive material for terrorist purposes. British media imply the Somalian-born Norwegian may have connections to terrorist group al-Qaida, newspaper VG reports. The 52-year-old was arrested in London last September, charged with procuring a kilo of radioactive red mercury, used in creating so-called 'dirty bombs', a combination of explosive and radioactive material.

Much to Treasure from Royal Norwegian Visit A Royal visit brings with it much to cherish and to treasure. The visit by His Majesty King Harald V and Her Majesty Queen Sonja to Singapore brings with it much rewards for both countries and their peoples. Singapore and Norway share much similar interests and concerns, especially in the maritime field and in oil and gas. With the recent visit of Their Majesties, the areas of joint interests and concerns will no doubt be expanded broadly into other fields such as tourism and possibly even renewable energy.

Dear Leftwing Activists: The Tsunami is Not about You Marian Shah The left-wing activist response to the South Asian tsunami serves as evidence that rather than practicing what they preach by reaching out to their fellow man, they are more concerned with hating America and furthering their socialist agenda. Considering that a tsunami is an act of nature and not a military bomb, one would not consider it a political issue. However, our friendly, neighborhood activists still made it all about them. Within hours of the disaster, the extreme left-wing Democratic Underground website busted out the anti-Bush, anti-America conspiracy theories....

It’s so easy to say you support the troops, regardless of which side you come down on in the issue of the War in Iraq itself. Yeah, you can send care packages and put yellow ribbon magnets on your car to make you feel all warm and fuzzy that you’re doing your own small part. You can do as I do and use forums such as this one to expound the viewpoint of the folks we send in harm’s way, hoping that someway, somehow, someone who can make a difference may read your rant and actually do that something that...

UNITED NATIONS, JANUARY 18: An international team of experts sponsored by the United Nations on Monday proposed a detailed, ambitious plan it says could halve extreme poverty and save the lives of millions of children and hundreds of thousands of mothers each year by 2015. The report says drastically reducing poverty in its many guises — hunger, illiteracy, disease — is ‘‘utterly affordable’’. To fulfill this goal, industrialised nations would need to roughly double aid to poor countries from a quarter to a half of one per cent of their national incomes. ‘‘We’re talking about rich countries committing 50 cents...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Wealthy nations are not making good on their pledge to deliver the money needed to halve extreme poverty worldwide by 2015, a panel of UN-appointed experts said in a new report. Nations around the world have committed themselves to an ambitious programme of UN "millennium development goals" to improve the lot of the world's poor and suffering. But with more than one billion people worldwide living on less than a dollar a day -- and 2.7 billion more surviving on less than two dollars -- the experts said time is running short to living up to...

1/14/05 We are updating this article, the original of which appeared on Jan. 2, 2005. The list contains new donors, bringing the total listed here to over $50 million not including in kind contributions. A few days ago we pointed out the stupidity of those critics who said we were stingy and that we were spending more on the Bush Inaugural than we were on disaster relief. As we said in the piece, the Inaugural is being privately funded, so it is not as if the US were picking the party over foreign aid. Further Inaugural donations were made prior...

UN demands swift cash from donors The UN wants $1bn in immediate aid for regions like Aceh The UN official co-ordinating aid for tsunami survivors has urged donor countries to release cash more quickly for the relief effort. Speaking at the start of an international meeting in Geneva, Jan Egeland said only one-tenth of aid pledged had so far been received. The response so far had shown "humanity at its very best", he said. But he also warned that donor countries must not neglect other humanitarian crises around the world. The Geneva meeting comes five days after UN Secretary General...

Jan Egeland, the United Nations' undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, sure did get clobbered over his use of the word "stingy" in reference to the initial outpouring of millions of dollars in US and Western aid for those countries affected by the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. But statements like his aren't formed in a vacuum, not even when emanating from the vacuous UN. Seems it was former President Jimmy Carter who, back in 1999 at a lecture at Principia College, said, "We are the stingiest nation of all." The good news is that, regardless of who gets to claim first...

The United Nations fritters away money while the American military steps in to help the hopeless in southeast Asia.IF YOU'RE GETTING OVER being steamed at Norwegian U.N. apparatchik Jan Egeland, who a week ago thought the U.S. response to the tsunami "stingy," then you need to check in at The Diplomad, a tremendous blog run by a State Department careerist serving abroad and which has done more for the reputation of State among conservatives in the past few months than 20 years of Council of Foreign Relations meets and greets. Short summary: Your worst fears about the United Nations are...

Nobles: The American people, for offering their money and their prayers to the tsunami victims. Some world diplomats and pundits just couldn't help but turn the disaster in Southeast Asia and Africa into a moment to criticize the United States. /snip The Chronicle of Philanthropy has reported that by the end of the week private donations to American charities have totaled more than $300 million, or just $50 million less than the U.S. government and many times more than what individual European governments have pledged. /snip Charles Krauthammer: "We are six percent or less of the world's population, yet we...

Greedy hypocrites January 7th, 2005 The recent disparagement of American aid efforts to help tsunami victims as “stingy” by Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations, is merely the latest in a series of anti-American words and actions by Norway and Norwegians. While one might generously characterize some of these actions as merely the typical left-wing carping of self-styled “humanitarians,” or as the by-product of good intentions gone awry, a closer analysis reveals that a prime motivation of this disproportionate hostility might be based on that oldest of human failings: greed. Recent history indicates that the...

We are six percent or less of the world's population, yet we give almost half. We are a very small number of people, relatively speaking, and we carry the weight of a dozen countries. Secondly, we maintain a military structure that keeps the peace of the world...Who is in the Indian Ocean with the aircraft carriers, helicopters, skilled personal? No one has the infrastructure in the world, we spend almost half a trillion dollars a year on our military structure, which is essentially the fire department of the planet and it is always at the disposal of people hit in...

  Liberals Love America Like O.J. Loved NicoleBy Ann Coulter January 6, 2005 Even the United Nations sponge who called the United States "stingy" immediately retracted the insult, saying he had been misinterpreted and that the U.S. was "most generous." But the New York Times was sticking with "stingy." In an editorial subtly titled "Are We Stingy? Yes," the Times said the U.N. sponge "was right on target." This followed up a patriotic editorial a few days earlier titled "America, the Indifferent." America's stinginess is a long-standing leitmotif for liberals – which is getting hard to square with their love...

GUEST OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR ALTHOUGH the Bush administration has now pledged $350 million for the Asian tsunami catastrophe, claims that America is "stingy" are still in the air. The criticism stems from the much-touted fact that our government's foreign aid ranks last among developed countries as a percentage of gross national income. This rankles, as Americans tend to think of themselves as a generous people. How can we, the richest nation in the world, not be more caring? The answer is simple: we actually are. For one thing, our government gives the highest absolute amount in foreign aid - more than...

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on your definition of "charity." To the United Nations, and The New York Times, charity apparently is defined by how much a government offers to those in need from the money its citizens have coughed up to stay out of jail. To most Americans, charitable giving involves willfully directing cash from their own pockets and giving it to causes they favor - in this case helping the millions who survived the Asian tsunamis. The widely different mentality comes to the fore in the wake of the comments by U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland...

The establishment press has been dutifully chronicling the disaster relief contributions of Western nations in the wake of the South Asia tsunami disaster, where victims were overwhelmingly Muslim. But almost nobody seems concerned about how Muslim nations themselves are doing in the tsunami aid competition. Top radio talker Rush Limbaugh stepped into the breach on Tuesday, detailing for his audience the relatively stingy response from brother nations.• Saudi Arabia - $10 million. "That's like an afternoon shopping spree in Paris for a member of the Saudi royal family," noted Limbaugh.• Iran pledged a puny $627,000 - a small fraction of...

Columnist Charles Krauthammer blasted U.N. officials and other America-bashers Sunday morning for trying to paint the U.S.'s foreign aid contribution as "stingy" in the wake of the Asia tsunami disaster - especially since the facts prove exactly the opposite. "We are six percent, or less, of the world's population," Krauthammer told his fellow "Fox News Sunday" panelists. "We give almost half [of the global foreign aid]. ... We give 60 percent of all the food aid on the planet." And that's not all: "We maintain a military infrastructure that keeps the peace in the world," he noted. "We are the...

Americans: A greedy, selfish, stingy and uncaring people who couldn't care less about the plight of others, engage in decadent behavior, and are so self-absorbed that they pleasure themselves while looking at satellite photos of the United States.At least, that's the approximate definition given by the United Nations and the New York Times editorial board. Yes, the Times is at it again. This, from an editorial last week: He [President Bush] took issue with an earlier statement by the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who had called the overall aid efforts by rich Western nations "stingy." "The person...

UN's Jan Egeland quickly backpedaled from his assertion Monday that wealthy nations -- which pay his salary and fund his work -- are "stingy" when it comes to aiding the relief effort following Asia's deadly tsunami. No lie. As President Bush noted Wednesday, the United States contributed 40 percent of aid relief for the world's emergencies in 2004. To be fair, Egeland didn't single out the United States as "stingy." What he said was: "(I)t is remarkable that we have no country up to the 1 percent line of foreign assistance in general and we have, I think, three Scandinavians...

For some people, and some countries, the US can do no right. In the wake of the tsunami and earthquakes in South Asia, critics wasted no time in referring to US aid as "stingy" and "delayed." Even though the US began with an initial aid package of about $35 million, while still trying to assess the need and organize for a much greater commitment, the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.

A week ago, people kept asking me for my opinion of the tsunami, and, to be honest, I didn't have one. It didn't seem the kind of thing to have an "opinion" on, even for an opinion columnist — not like who should win the election or whether we should have toppled Saddam. It was obviously a catastrophe, and it was certain the death toll would keep rising, and other than that there didn't seem a lot to opine about. I've never subscribed to Macmillan's tediously over-venerated bit of political wisdom about "events, dear boy, events". Most "events" — even...

Are there no limits to the audacity of the corrupt, lying socialists who run the United Nations? After bungling or pilfering virtually every project the UN has ever managed, this useless organization should now be in a position of having to justify its existence before receiving another cent from the United States of America. Instead, after watching these leeches administer the now-infamous oil-for-food program - through which billions of dollars earmarked for the destitute people of Iraq were instead used to line the pockets of thieving United Nations bigwigs - Americans now have to listen to the man in charge...

CNSNews.com) - President Bush said on Wednesday that U.S. aid to South Asian victims of Sunday's earthquake and tidal waves is "only the beginning of our help," and he commented that the United Nations official who said America is being "stingy" in its response was "misguided and ill-informed." The president made the remarks during a news conference at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, during which he gave his first public comments on the disaster that has affected many nations on the other side of the globe. When asked by a reporter if he was "offended by the suggestion that rich...

U.N.GRATEFUL  By Michelle Malkin   ·   January 02, 2005 02:24 PM The U.N.'s Mr. Stingy now says our military assets--helicopters, boats, and other transport equipment--are "worth their weight in gold."You're welcome, ingrate.Meanwhile, The Diplomad reports on an outrageous suggestion from a local U.N. rep that our military personnel in Aceh (as well as Australians helping out with air ops) take off their uniforms and put on U.N. blue helmets instead. Diplomad writes: Now you all know that The Diplomad is not a cynical or suspicious being, but there is something funny going on here . . . what could it...

Good Morning, Am I Heartless?.......or What? You know, the disaster in Asia is a terrible thing but I ask you, other than the number of dead, didn't we have several major disasters hit us in the very recent history? We had hurricanes go through our Southern States and wipe out a lot of structures? We lost Billions of dollars worth of just about everything, including crops. Oil rigs were shut down in the Gulf of Mexico, pushing the price of crude oil to Americans higher. The reason we didn't suffer the great loss of life is because we have developed...

The Americanswritten by Gordon Sinclair (spoken-word recording made by Byron MacGregor with musical accompaniment by The Detoit Symphony Orchestra) United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the world. As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse....

No one gives more than U.S. Americans face unfair criticism over big relief contributions, Peter Worthington writes By PETER WORTHINGTON -- For the Toronto Sun December 31, 2004 The Boxing Day tsunami catastrophe may well be the worst natural disaster in human history. It probably is in terms of lives lost, although one should remember the world's population has gone from under one billion in 1800 to over six billion in 2004 (it's tripled since 1927), so death from disasters keep increasing. When Krakatoa erupted on the Indonesian island of Rakata in 1883, it sent a tidal wave circling and...

The New York Times agrees with that United Nations official who suggested the United States was stingy in the aid planned for tsunami-devastated nations. The official later backed down, but it's unlikely the liberal newspaper will do so. In fact, the newspaper, in an editorial, said the United States has not only been stingy in its response to the Asian tsunami disaster, but in giving aid in general. The editorial said the $15 million initially offered by Washington was less than the figure the Republican Party plans to spend on President Bush's inauguration in January. Mr. Bush and Secretary of...

The Stinge-O-Meter, which the United Nations uses to measure the generosity of its members, is busted. The needle is spinning wildly, out of control.     Jan Egeland, the chief bureaucrat in charge of the U.N. emergency relief, such as it is, gave the Stinge-O-Meter a mighty spin in the wake of the Asian tsunami and read the miserable verdict: The United States and the nations of the West are "stingy."     Mr. Egeland, a Norwegian who throws up at the idea that anyone should spend his own money without bureaucratic guidance, says the trouble is rooted in the fact that Americans...

"What they're actually doing is using dead people to make cheap points." That's how the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan described some partisans' use of this week's deadly Indian Ocean tsunami to promote various and sundry political agendas. We think it about describes the exploitation of the tragedy by the United Nations' Jan Egeland with his "stingy" remark and the New York Times' criticism of the United States. It being Christmastime, most world leaders were on vacation when the tsunami hit. Kofi Annan was just arriving back in New York late Wednesday. By Thursday morning he still hadn't met with...

The other day, a United Nations official accused the United States of being “stingy” in terms of aid to tsunami victims in South Asia.  After criticism from the State Department, the official clarified his position.  Americans are not being stingy in helping tsunami victims, only stingy in terms of overall foreign aid as compared to other countries. This is a familiar attack, which comes up annually when the foreign aid appropriations bill is before Congress.  But let’s look at the facts.  According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, in 2003, the world’s major countries gave $108.5 billion...