It may not be paradise now (especially if it is a dusty and desolate corner of Iraq).

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Liberal standard bearers like Hollywood have had no compunction about giving prestigious awards to movies like Paradise Now, which glorified murderers of Jews in a manner unmatched since the days of Leni Riefenstahl.

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Eventually, Henkel opened his private paradise to guests the place now pays for itself.

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The high-tech "paradise" created in the 1950s and 1960s "is now one giant parking lot, " he writes.

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Many now see this era as a fools' paradise - during which pretty much everyone had an exaggerated faith in the stability of the economy, such that banks lent too much, many businesses and consumers borrowed too much, and the government fooled itself into thinking that tax revenues flowing in from a debt-fuelled boom would be sustainable.

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