Free Republic

Two economic fallacious are gaining ground in Australia. The first one is that free trade is hollowing out the economy: the second one has that we will run out of resources, particularly oil. At least the first fallacy is plausible; the second one, however. is pure tripe. The Australian Bureau of Statistics show that for the March quarter the value imported consumer and business products jumped by 16 per cent. The Australian Industry Group argues that by next December 25 per cent of the country’s manufacturing base will have moved abroad. This will mean a loss of 70,000 manufacturing jobs...

When I learned that George W. Bush had decided to invade Iraq, I asked myself: Why Iraq? Why not Pakistan, that has the atomic bomb and distributes nuclear technology in the international terrorism market? Why not Iran? Why not Saudi Arabia, from where money gushes into Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc? Several readers, via e-mail, demanded that I “take a stance” on the war, but I had none. I don’t usually have opinions on issues in which I cannot interfere. And contrary to virtually all newspaper columnists in Brazil, I do not expect that what I write will insufflate panic in...

Graham Barrett's Why Bush is still the man to beat (The Age 29/11/03) is another sickening example of the left's mendacity and its hatred of President Bush. According to Barrett it's Bush's fault that the "Middle East is an expensive shambles", Bush is always giving different excuses for invading Iraq, "the rise of terrorism [under Bush] has exposed the most dramatic intelligence failure since Pearl Harbour, the US deficit is the biggest in history, several million American jobs have been lost, environmental pollution is worsening, American diplomacy is in tatters and American global popularity is to be found in...