Victor Hugo on Hell and Paradise

Today is the birthday of Victor Hugo, the French poet, dramatist, and novelist (1802-1885) who said that

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

A library implies an act of faith.

All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.

A saint addicted to excessive self-abnegation is a dangerous associate; he may infect you with poverty, and a stiffening of those joints which are needed for advancement — in a word, with more renunciation than you care for — and so you flee the contagion.

The following quote might give pause to those who consider capitalist America a living hell and state-interventionist Europe the closest thing to heaven on Earth:

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.

And might the following not concern Bush's (non-)reaction in the Florida classroom to the first 911 news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center?

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is invisible labour.

But Don't Forget How Skeptical Europe's Public Opinion Was, and Is, of Bush!

Can't the only explanation for that be that the Europeans, those wise and objective citizens of Europe's, really are honest in their distrust for Uncle Sam? Bill Sammon answers:

The prime minister of Slovakia … blamed the media for unfairly turning the European public against President Bush by negatively slanting coverage on Iraq.

After meeting with Mr. Bush twice in less than a week, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda told reporters that the president also blamed the press for portraying him as eager to invade Iran to eradicate its nuclear program.

"President Bush told me in Brussels: 'I am so unhappy that media creates the picture that Bush wants war in Iran. This is crazy,' " Mr. Dzurinda told a small group of reporters over lunch.

The prime minister was reminded that while the governments of Central and Eastern Europe supported Operation Iraqi Freedom, the populace was much more skeptical, according to polls.

Mr. Dzurinda responded by telling the journalists, including one from CNN, that he was "shocked" to see media outlets like CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) showing "only American soldiers killing people. But nobody was able to show Saddam Hussein, who killed many, many thousands of Iraqi people."

"It was impossible to see a real picture of this regime," he lamented. "And the result is the public is one day strongly against Bush. 'Bush loves war,' he's 'new terrorist,' and so on and so on."

The prime minister predicted that it is "only a question of time when people in Slovakia, in Germany, in European countries, will understand more that this activity were necessary. And the world, without Saddam Hussein, is much more democratic than before."

Still, plenty of Slovaks braved nasty weather to give an enthusiastic reception to Mr. Bush's speech yesterday at a Bratislava square where the protests that brought down communism 15 years ago began.

When he told the crowd of thousands that "the American people are proud to call you allies and friends and brothers in the cause of freedom," his audience exploded with applause.

["In recent times we have witnessed landmark events in the history of liberty — a Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in Ukraine and now a Purple Revolution in Iraq," he said, in a reference to the Iraqis who dipped their index fingers into purple ink to show they had voted.]

After the speech was over, Mr. Bush went into the crowd and was swamped by enthusiastic Slovaks — the first time he pressed the flesh during his five-day trip to Europe.

Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan said after the speech that "the meeting in the square was fantastic."

Unless I am mistaken, this was entirely ignored by the press in both France and Germany. (Dare we generalize this to all of "Old Europe"? I think so…)

Mr. Dzurinda, who grew up under communist oppression in the Soviet bloc, said nations such as his were more supportive of Operation Iraqi Freedom because they remembered communism. Slovakia has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I spent many years under tyranny," he said. "So I completely understand what it means to fight for democracy — don't take this for granted.

"Maybe this is why I understand better than Chirac or Schröder," he added, referring to French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, both of whom opposed the Iraq war.

Mr. Dzurinda also faulted Mr. Chirac and Mr. Schroeder for not understanding Mr. Bush's decision to abandon diplomacy and invade Iraq.

"I understand, [with] the president of the United States, that this is impossible to wait forever," he said. "I hope that the German chancellor and French president understand more today than yesterday."

Mr. Dzurinda said he had been meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 9, 2003, when the statue of Saddam was pulled down in Baghdad, signaling the end of the dictator's regime.

Mr. Dzurinda said Mr. Putin, whose nation had been one of the prime suppliers of weapons and political support to the Saddam regime, launched into a 25-minute discussion that "was more lecture than dialogue."

"I was happy," the prime minister recalled. "President Putin was not so happy.

"He told me that the United States missed the chance to be a moral victor," he said. "He told me it would be better to withdraw forces."

What forest?

One of the hobgoblins of the leftist mind was always the matter of nuclear deterrence – it’s detestable need to actually have a threat at hand for it to work, the slight problem they had with the fact that it DID work, and that their great enemy (their own nations and the US, might be protected from being evaporated by it… and all that…

So nu, what now? Nuclear deterrence is a GOOD thing to lefty now, y’see, because all they ever wanted was to deter free people from not being controlled by their petty complaints and NGOs. And the Mossad, the CIA, and their mommy and daddy were all behind 9-11 anyway…
Iran and North Korea can have nukes, threaten their respective neighborhoods, and blackmail the rest of civilization into giving them stuff that moronic economic concepts like Freaky-variant-X-Maoism and Islamic banking can’t.

So for the always-late-to-the-obvious left, the thing to do is immediately start talking in circles until anyone who pities them enough to listen is dizzy. The goal behind the demanding of dialog is to endlessly talk in circles to draw attention to their person. Clarity of view, basic universal morality, or purpose is their enemy.

To them, the symbol or method (deterrence in this case) is the issue. The matter of protecting ones’ fellow citizens from tyrannical lunatics isn’t.

Here’s your “International A.N.S.W.E.R.”, butt-monkey…

Because...

Because they're Socialists, that's why!... Sheesh!

This is their idea of a paying job.

Zeropean multilateralism at work	Le multilatéralisme zéropéen à l'oeuvre
Iran is hiding stuff from wimpy Zeropean nuclear inspectors and then insulting them: 'Generally speaking, Europe cannot keep its promises'. Let the bombing commence!	Les iraniens jouent les cachotiers avec les pédaloïdes zéropéens chargés d'inspecter le programme nucléaire iranien. En plus, les iraniens insultent les européens: 'D'une manière générale, les Européens sont incapables de tenir leurs promesses'. Que les bombardements commencent!

German Masses Protesting Bush's Mainz Visit Are In for a Surprize

In view of the anti-American (or anti-Bush) demonstration that was going to welcome George W Bush when the president visited Mainz on Wednesday, Ray and David decided to organize a pro-American demo in that German city.

Among the 30-some people who heeded Medienkritik's call and joined the counter-demonstration (covered by ZDF, FAZ, and Monitor, among others) were Christian, David, Eckart, Ernst, Frank, Franz, Gerrit, Greg, Ian, Karin, Moritz, Paul, and Stefan Herre.

Taking the loudspeaker to answer "No blood for oil" with "No EU peace for Saddam's kickbacks" (this seemed to confuse a number of the anti-American protestors)…

I was proud of this sign I wrote and
proud of the guy who got to carry it…

Two opposing philosophies

Run away! Run away!

Two fans of No Pasarán ask to pose with one of your webmasters

¡No Pasarán! blogger given lemons, makes lemonade

Hey Erik, be nice to them - they might be able to tear up a few parking tickets. They probably know some kind of intersting "handcuff games" too, dude.... Don't jinx it! Resist!

Gerhard and the world of tomorrow

Writing in Der Spiegel, Claus Christian Malzahn askes: Could George W. Bush Be Right?

This, in fact, is likely the largest point of disagreement between Europe and the United States -- and one that a President John Kerry likely would not have made smaller: Europeans today -- just like the Europeans of 1987 -- cannot imagine that the world might change. Maybe we don't want the world to change, because change can, of course, be dangerous. But in a country of immigrants like the United States, one actually pushes for change. In Mainz today, the stagnant Europeans came face to face with the dynamic Americans. We Europeans always want to have the world from yesterday, whereas the Americans strive for the world of tomorrow.

This by no means represents the general view of the German press. Der Speiegel's press round-up reveals a press gritting their teeth trying to be nice for a few days, and only capable of putting this sort of exchange not in geo-politial terms, but in me-me-me!-generation personalization of the US-German relationship.

...as if the US and Germany were equally involved in global matters...

Racist Incidents Are Jarring the French

writes Katrin Bennhold on the front page of the International Herald Tribune.

Swastikas on the walls of a Paris mosque. An arson attack on a railway carriage commemorating French Jews who were deported to Nazi camps in World War II. Blatant anti-Semitic comments by a comedian.

A recent string of racist incidents in France has shaken the political establishment at a time when the country is battling its image abroad as a country where anti-Semitism is making a powerful comeback and anti-Arab sentiments are rising.

European granola fascists finally notice French conglomerates

'Democracy polluting' Total pushed to exit Myanmar

PARIS, Feb 21 (AFP) - Some 40 organisations launched an international campaign here Monday aimed at pressuring the French oil giant Total to pull out of Myanmar, where they said the company's activities support a military dictatorship, a French activist collective announced.

The campaign is led by the International Federation for Human Rights, Actions Birmanie of Belgium and the French collective, which is called "Total pollutes democracy."

And Socialists NEVER polluted? Burma is a democracy?!? Snxphth!!!
Hee hee... snuffle - snort... hee hee.... he said "collective"....

Victocrats refuse to protect proleterians

Strike hits Paris airports

Why, you might ask?:

PARIS, Feb 23 (AFP) - Runway workers at Paris' Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports are to stage a 24-hour strike Thursday to protest the suspension of one of their colleagues suspected to be at least partly to blame for the death of a flight attendant who fell from a mobile stairway.

The stoppage - which some unions called to be extended to other French airports - follows strikes that caused disruptions on the weekend at one of Orly's terminals.

Air France last week suspended the driver of one of the mobile stairways used for embarking and disembarking passengers.

He was in charge of a stairway from which a 35-year-old flight attendant fell to her death on February 1 as it was moved away from an aircraft. The oman, a mother of two children, died from injuries sustained in the seven-metre (23-foot) drop.

Goodness me, strike to KEEP HIM ON THE JOB, by all means! Power to the people!

Immediate response	Réponse instantanée

Cute little tewowist….. Aw….

Via John Ray, we have J.B. Williams writing in CanadaFreePress.com

What do you call people who blow up police stations, ambulance services, restaurants, hospitals, schools, water and electric services, behead social workers who feed their hungry and provide medical attention to their sick, murder men who are there to rebuild their schools and teachers who give their children hope for the first time, Muslims who blow up Muslims, even on the holiest day in the Muslim faith, at the mosques no less? .Insurgents? Hardly! What do you call people who blow up police stations, ambulance services, restaurants, hospitals, schools, water and electric services, behead social workers who feed their hungry and provide medical
attention to their sick, murder men who are there to rebuild their schools and teachers who give their children hope for the first time, Muslims who blow up Muslims, even on the holiest day in the Muslim faith, at the mosques no less? Insurgents? Hardly!

The men, who threw tea into the Boston harbor, now they were insurgents. The farmers, who sent the Red Coats packing, they were insurgents.

The term "insurgents" implies that there is something noble in their deeds, something justifiable about their tactics, a valiant act of patriotic duty involved. In this case, nothing could be further from the truth.these freedom fighters are not fighting for freedom, quite the contrary.

What do you call the taking of innocent life, not in self defense, without provocation of any kind, not in war? Some call it "a choice" or "abortion". But I looked it up in the dictionary and I like calling things by their rightful name, so I call it murder.

Is the guy who blows up the abortion clinic an insurgent? How about those who mailed anthrax around the U.S.? What about Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, insurgents? The kids who shot up Columbine, insurgents too I suppose? All just helpless victims of the good old U.S.A., rebelling against authority right?

Wrong! All terrorists plain and simple.

Fear and Loathing at Ground Zero

Poem concerning the structures soon to replace the WTC (I cannot find the title for this, perhaps someone can clue me in) Where is the twisted human torso? Where are the flames? Where is the smoke? What crossed fingers still dangle below These calm subterranean spaces? Should we not, here and now, make known the Inexplicable agony? Who among these Names leaped to their deaths? Who did not Have a chance to leap, scorched, crushed? Placid well-lit puddles of piddling light Confine the defiant. Monuments. Intended to mourn, feign empathy and Experience. Serene Ground Zero. Is this the scene searched in vain for remains? Each age has the art it deserves. Eugene Schlanger aka The Wall Street Poet

Zeropean bravery

Bravoure des zéropéens

Those sophisticated EUrine peeins. Stand up to Muslim integrists? No way. A few Belgian congressmen went into hiding when Van Gogh got his throat slashed just across the border from them. What is a safe, consensual (consensual blather posing as rebellion is a Zeropean pasttime), empty statement of revolt that is quintessentially Zeropean? Water sports. Zeropeans really are miserable little faggots.

Ils sont tellement évolués ces UE-rine pions. Tenir tête aux intégristes musulmans? Pas queston. Des députés belges sont entrés dans la clandestinité quand Van Gogh s'est fait ouvrir la gorge, juste de l'autre côté de la frontière. Qu'est-ce qu'ils peuvent bien faire en matière de révolte qui est sans risque, consensuel (des boniments consensuels camouflés par une façade de rebellion sont la grande spécialité des zéropéens, surtout des tarlouzes franchouilles), et typiquement zéropéen? Jeux d'eau. Les zéropéens sont véritablement qu'une bande de pédaloïdes misérables.

Enjoy your strong Euro suckers!	Profitez bien de votre Euro fort, bande de pigeons!
Unemployment structurally stuck at 10%, stagnant growth, capped salaries for a Zeropa of small wage earners who don't deserve any better anyway.	Chômage structurellement figé à 10%, croissance stagnante, salaires compressés pour une Zéropa de gagne-petits qui ne méritent pas mieux de toute façon.

February 23, 1945

Easy Company takes Mount Suribachi

Hilarious...

From the New York Post:


A schoolteacer encourages a classful of thoroughly reprogrammed peace-robot kids at a junior High School in Brooklyn to write demoralizing letters to one PFC Rob Jacobs. Some of the meaningful bits:

"Filled with political diatribes, the letters — excerpts of which were printed in yesterday's Post — predicted GIs would die by the tens of thousands, accused soldiers of killing Iraqi civilians and bashed President Bush.

Teacher Alex Kunhardt had his students write Jacobs as part of a social-studies assignment.

One girl wrote that she believes Jacobs is "being forced to kill innocent people" and challenged him to name an Iraqi terrorist, concluding, "I know I can't."

Another girl wrote, "I strongly feel this war is pointless," while a classmate predicted that because Bush was re-elected, "only 50 or 100 [soldiers] will survive."

A boy accused soldiers of "destroying holy places like mosques."


PFC Jacobs is stationed in South Korea.

People who truly don’t get it

Getting their Pizza-dough clue free...



This should be required reading for the smurf-heads.

The whole thing seems a little silly then UN staff are trading food for winky-winky with refugees.

Last chance to get on board	Dernière opportunité pour monter à bord
French media and Old Guard bloggers have completely misread the signification of Bush's visit. Bush is playing the Europeans as he has played all his opponents since 2000. After the looming run-in with Iran, the US can kiss Zeropa definitively good-bye. Spittle shooting French shitheads, ever the paternalistic lesson givers, are gloating now. It won't last.	Les média franchouilles et la Vieille Garde de la blogosphère fwançaise ont une interprétation éronée de la signification de la visite de Bush. Bush est en train de mystifier les européens comme il a fait avec tous ses opposants depuis 2000. Suite à l'inévitable clash avec l'Iran, les USA pourront dire 'Adieu' à la Zéropa. Les bouseux avec leurs bouilles à bozo postillonnantes, qui se posent toujours en donneurs de leçons paternalistes, se pavoisent à présent. Pas pour longtemps.
Bush: Nice tie. Chiraq: Thank you.

How very gezellig...

By way of the excellent Dutch Report:

A Hindu temple in The Hague, the Ram Mandir, is frequently being attacked by a group of Moroccan youth.

The trouble caused by Moroccan youth has made a dent in Ramdhani’s idealism. He’s thinking about no longer attending the 9/11 meetings. “I feel discriminated against. Why they have to choose our temple? There is a mosque nearby. Why don’t they go over there to cause trouble? They must hate the Hindu faith. Otherwise I don’t know.”

From a related story:

In the local Dutch newspaper 'Brabands Dagblad' it is reported that in the city of Den Bosh there are 16 gangs of mainly Moroccan youth who cause trouble. In total about 300 people.
In the area of Den Bosch live around 131.664 people of which around 3726 are first and second generation Moroccan immigrants.
That would mean that around 40% of the Moroccan youth in Den Bosch is causing extreme problems. But the girls, who are approximate 50% of the youth, are never involved in street crimes and harassments cases. This means that these number say that 80% of the Moroccan boys in Den Bosh are involved in street violence.

They are also following Ruud Lubber's 'fondle-palooza'.

Elsewhere on Dutch report: links to a LBV.net, a polyglot blogger reporting on the predictable clashes and moonbat street-theater revolving around President Bush's visit.

Spin it, fifi

Bush smoked some rope once, and doesn't want his kids to do it either - woop dee doodle.

NPR - It was revealed this weekend that a former Bush advisor made secret tapes of conversations had when George Bush was governor of Texas and considering a run for the White House. On the tapes, the now-President Bush indicated that he had used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example for children.

The navel gazers at Le Figaro covers the item this way -
Les confessions privées du président embarrassent la Maison-Blanche

Toss in a hints of megalomania:

Les uns et les autres étaient sans doute passés à côté du message essentiel : une Amérique «forte» interviendrait dans les affaires du monde quand, où et comme elle le voudrait. Avec ou sans la caution de la communauté internationale. Une phrase extraite des bandes de Doug Wead, dont l'existence a été révélée dimanche dernier par le New York Times, offre un parallèle troublant entre un trait de caractère et ce qui allait devenir une marque de la politique étrangère de «W» : «C'est moi contre le monde. La bonne nouvelle, c'est que le monde est de mon côté. Disons plus de la moitié.» La phrase est citée hors contexte par le Times et non datée. Elle est évidemment bien antérieure aux événements de 2001 et 2003, mais elle préfigure déjà la vision manichéenne de l'Administration Bush : «Avec nous ou contre nous.»

Start with that nasty thing called a belief system to deconstruct:

Plus que l'influence de la droite religieuse dans l'orientation de sa politique étrangère et intérieure, ce sont les confessions de George W. Bush sur ses péchés de jeunesse qui retiennent l'attention des médias américains. Pendant toute sa première campagne, le candidat, qui ne cachait pas avoir renoncé à l'alcool après avoir «accepté le Christ dans sa vie», avait systématiquement refusé de répondre à toute question sur son usage de la drogue. Les enregistrements ne laissent guère de doute : «W» a, comme Bill Clinton et Al Gore qui avaient été plus francs, essayé la marijuana.

Finally, hide the only meaningful part of the story at the bottom of the piece:

Excuse de son silence : ne pas donner, en tant que président, le mauvais exemple. «Je ne veux pas qu'un gosse fasse ce que j'ai essayé de faire il y a trente ans», dit-il dans un extrait diffusé sur la chaîne ABC hier matin. «Peu importe que ce soit du LSD, de la cocaïne ou de l'herbe (...) parce que, si je réponds à une question, il y en aura une autre. Je ne répondrai pas à ces questions et tant pis si ça me coûte l'élection.»


I just love European papers. They do all of your thinking FOR you!

Bush: Chirac a 'Good Cowboy'

Let’s see if Le Monde and Libé editors pop a few blood vessels in their eyes….
Y’see, pilgrim, "Cowboy" is a good thing.

Fear and Loathing on the Trading Floor

Traders' Call to Arms Our apparent greed mocked by the media; Our insatiable need condemned by professors, Who condemn materiality, lest their Discussions of Foucault affect nothing. Until you are part of a trading floor You will not understand the excitement of Real-time screens, of offers to buy that Bid up dealers' prices around the globe Instantaneously, uniting buyers and Sellers in an enterprise that promotes Enterprise. 3,000 dead by terrorists. I'm short on Afghanistan, long on bonds. Liberty is specious without a sound And active economy. Position yourselves. (in memory of Constantine Economos, 104th Floor, 2 World Trade Center), Eugene Schlanger aka The Wall Street Poet

Yeah right, and you ain't the neighborhood fuck doll	Ouais c'est ça, et toi, tu n'es pas la vide-couilles du quartier
"Redouane didn't go to Iraq, he went to Turkey in the Spring of 2004 to buy clothes." Khadija (sister of Redouane -- French kid who went to snuff it in Falluja) makes with her pork bologna before flipping out with a Pali style martyr rant.	"Redouane n'est pas parti en Irak, mais en Turquie au printemps 2004 pour acheter des vêtements." Khadija (soeur de Redouane -- jeune français qui est parti crever à Falloujah) raconte des énormités pur porc avant de flipper grave avec une diatribe à la sauce parodie de martyre palestinienne.

Young France's new hero

L'héro des chères têtes blondes franchouilles

You can get some in-detail translations of French comic Dieudonné's latest anti-Semitic slurs over at Last of the Famous International Playboys, here and here. Dieudonné is emblematic of the new strain of anti-Semitic Green-Brown-Red extreme left who are far more numerous than mythical scarecrow right-wing extremists. Remember that Dieudonné received a standing ovation from a live television audience for his now notorious anti-Semitic sketch performed on French State TV and just a few weeks ago received a standing ovation from over 5,000 paying spectators at the Paris Zenith, a performance during which he had the crowd boo the names of French Jewish intellectuals one-by-one. French Old Guard bloggers are explaining why Dieudonné's commentary is not as bad as the National Front's when they are not trying to redefine the word 'Jew' (pending new definition to be dictated by a committee of pedantic panty-wastes).

Le Tombeur de Ces Dames propose des traductions des derniers commentaires antisémites de Dieudonné ici et ici. Dieudonné est bien représentatif des antisémites de gôche Vert-Brun-Rouge qui sont désormais bien plus nombreux que les mythiques épouvantails extrémistes de droite. On retiendra que Dieudonné était ovationné par les spectateurs présents pour son tristement célèbre sketch joué en direct sur la chaîne de l'Etat franchouille et qu'il y a seulement quelques semaines il était ovationné par 5.000 spectateurs au Zénith de Paris suite à une performance où il a fait huer toute une liste de noms d'intellectuels juifs français lue à haute voix. Les bloggeurs franchouilles de la Vieille Garde nous expliquent pourquoi les commentaires de Dieudonné sont nettement moins pire que ceux du Front National quand ils ne s'affairent pas à redéfinir le mot 'juif' (nouvelle définition en cours d'homologation par un comité de pédalo pédants).

Unelected Zeropean bureaucrappers give mandated Bush lesson in democracy	Les bureaucrottes zéropéens non-élus donnent des leçons en démocratie à Bush
Bush: I'm exporting democracy. Zeropean bureaucrapper: We have all we need.

Vee LUFF Amerika!

No, no, it's all About Bush! - It's only Bush we oppose!
Clinton, now there was somebody we liked... and respected...

-Danke, Danke, Frank!

Great moments in moral vanity

Do I have to draw you a picture?

It's only been up a week, and the usual "tolerant" characters already have their panties bunched up in a knot.

Maroons… Ignaramuses…

Review of a volume of eco-nonsense bleating by a Jeremy Rifkin wannabe:

“Pulitzer-winning author Jared Diamond says Dutch society will succeed in the years ahead, but America may fail. Diamond sees America's will to succeed being sapped by such eco-problems as overpopulation and pollution.

However, the Netherlands is also the most technology-dependent country in the world. Without their hydraulic floodgates and giant electric pumps, the Netherlands would quickly disappear under the waters of the North Sea. The Netherlands depends on engineers, not Green Council meetings.

Both the Netherlands and the U.S. will need even better technology, not less, as we cope with the ongoing Modern Warming—and the Modern Little Ice Age that will follow it about 1000 years from now.
The same folks touch on another internal contradiction of eco-chic that can’t be consolidated:

Europe's politicians loved Kyoto when it was negotiated in 1997. It scored big points with their Green parties, and the really harsh energy cutbacks-to be demanded after 2012-seemed a long way off. Now the start date of emissions cutbacks is next year, and the draconian post-2012 energy limits are seven years closer. The costs of Kyoto compliance run are likely to total trillions of dollars per year, and may push millions of EU jobs to other countries.

For countries that have pledged to give up their nuclear power plants, such as Germany and the Netherlands, a future without fossil fuels, nuclear power-or even windmills-looks stark indeed. Especially when seabed sediments in both the North and South Atlantic testify the world has had nine natural, moderate global warmings and coolings in the last 12,000 years.

Earth to E.U.: keep up the good work!

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world -- a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Well, shit on that dumbness. George W. Bush does not speak for me or my son or my mother or my friends or the people I respect in this world. We didn't vote for these cheap, greedy little killers who speak for America today -- and we will not vote for them again in 2002. Or 2004. Or ever. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us -- they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. Kingdom of Fear, Hunter S. Thompson

When America's Friends Are Infected and Corrupted By the General Anti-American Ambiance

It was as if a visitor to the office of the president of the European Commission was watching caution's cloak descend in slo-mo over José Manuel Barroso's shoulders, and eurospeak, like a Denver boot, clamp tightly onto his tongue

writes John Vinocur in the IHT as he shows the perfidy of Europe's self-serving views, and how in Europe, principles — and a spine — are chewed away and corrupted when joining the government and the élite.

This is something I have had the opportunity to see happen time and again (not least with this politician), where American friends are asked if they can't be reasonable and identify just one mistake or fault with the "current" administration in Washington (it's not about America itself, you understand), while refraining from treating their own country — or any other — in a similar way. Thus, a model of double standards that starts to grow — consciously or not, deliberately or not — into a pattern…

It is also how expats are expected to act in Europe — refrain from criticizing the host country (too much), while agreeing with the Europeans when they make thier critical (and supposedly harmless) criticisms of Uncle Sam. Speaking for myself, silence in the face of ugly European (or Arab or third-world) attitudes is something I decided to forego once and for all three and a half years ago — to be precise, on September 11, 2001.

…A couple of years ago, as Portugal's center-right prime minister, Barroso had played eager host on the eve of the Iraq war to the Azores summit, a photo op with Bush and a few of Europe's then willing and bellicose. Barely a year later, still at the head of what he liked to call the essential Euro-Atlantic country, and talking about other Europeans' difficulties with Iraq, Barroso told the same visitor, "If it was Clinton or the liberals in power, we wouldn't have had the same criticism."

Now, although Barroso insists that none of his convictions have changed, he is Europe's most officially consensual voice, with a new distance to the Americans showing in his diction. For Bush, who may look for yardsticks to measure just how much the estrangement of his first term has hardened into the European status quo (while he respects Europe to death in speech after speech this week), Barroso's manner signals the arm's length of reality.

Respect, yes, that's what America must show Europe, Barroso says. You know, respect, he insists, like in that song by Otis Redding. …

Respect — and sophistication too. There ought to be more sophistication in America's judgments of the EU, Barroso went on. He said he understood how the current U.S. National Intelligence Council report reasons that the next 15 years will be those of the emergence of China and India, while it grades Europe's big ambitions as an uncertain bet. Yet the assessment somehow offended the Brussels world.

"A little more sophistication is needed," Barroso argued. "We are in many ways a superpower. We are a moral power."

At this, although his eyes do not roll back into his head, the visitor's thoughts jerk toward Europe's plan to abandon its embargo on arms sales to China. Expressed in the gentler language of the hour, the United States and Japan, asserting their joint concern over the weekend about Taiwan's safety, seem to think this step by the moral power is inopportune. Dangerous even.

With a kind of social worker/guidance counselor I'm-here-to-help-you look, Barroso explains: "China at this moment feels discriminated against. Our interest is stability. The EU believes it can do better by positive engagement."

But what's that? In the context of supplying China with arms, positive engagement sounds a lot like European incoherence.

France, through its defense minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, said Europe should sell China arms first so it didn't develop the technology and make them later themselves. But Gerhard Schröder of Germany, in an interview with Handelsblatt, was insisting that the EU offered only "a symbolic act" in China's direction, "since we absolutely don't have the intention of delivering weapons."

Oh? Barroso himself got caught up, venturing that the EU would establish a "binding" code of conduct for its China arms sales. This contradicted reports in the German press that France has privately rejected obligatory compliance.

In a sense, questions about relations with America and how the EU behaves as the moral superpower are a subordinate part of Barroso's concerns. Real life is trying to revive EU economy …

In truth, on America, being consensual at EU headquarters generally means no specific commitments beyond readings from the golden book of European-American values. In less than 100 days on the job, Barroso, the former Euro-Atlanticist, has easily adopted the less-than-Atlanticist honk that matches the Brussels mood.

…Barroso, the new pol in Brussels, is being the good European survivalist by accurately reflecting his constituency's reservations, its now congealed coolness about America. Whatever Bush's efforts, his old friend's manner suggests this will be very hard to change. …

Bush's critics often formed their opinions on the basis of crude caricatures in the European media, and they don't want to change them now

After pestering everybody with their whining that the unilateralist hyperpower is deaf and dumb, and that Bush does not listen to them, the Europeans get this dose of cold water from Reginald Dale:

Why is that so many people think they know what Bush thinks, while so few appear to listen to what he says?

asks the editor of the policy quarterly European Affairs and media fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The phenomenon is particularly widespread among Bush's many critics in America. But it also seems to have afflicted Europeans, who long ago formed their opinions of Bush, often on the basis of crude caricatures in the European media, and don't want to change them now.

There is little doubt, however, that many people who think they know what Bush thinks are wrong. And that in turn makes it harder for them to criticize Bush effectively. If you don't know what you are aiming at, you'll probably miss the target.

…[A] commentator claimed to have proved that Bush was hostile to European integration because he hardly ever mentioned the European Union. But in one of his best speeches, in London in November 2003, Bush said: "My nation welcomes the growing unity of Europe, and the world needs America and the European Union to work in common purpose for the advance of security and justice."

And this to the German Bundestag in May 2002: "When Europe grows in unity, Europe and America grow in security. When you integrate your markets and share a currency in the European Union, you are creating the conditions for security and common purpose. In all these steps, Americans do not see the rise of a rival, we see the end of old hostilities."

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made virtually identical statements during her European tour this month, Europeans hailed them as long overdue recognition of the EU by the Bush administration. Did they not hear the same message when Bush delivered it?

Advice to Uncle Sam from Europe: Uncle Sam, Ignore the Advice from Europe

A New York Times op-ed piece on what Europeans want from the United States includes contributions from Elfriede Jelinek, Bono, Robert Skidelsky, Gianni Rota, Constanze Stellenmüller, Tariq Ramadan, and Guillaume Parmentier, but the best piece of advice — the only sensible one, in fact — comes from a East European. Slovakia's Stefan Hrib basically tells Dubya to …ignore what the Europeans want from the United States.

I grew up under communism in the former Czechoslovakia

explains the editor in chief of the Slovak weekly Tyzden

We were taught that Ronald Reagan was a servant of the military-industrial complex, a man who wanted war and scorned ordinary people. Paradoxically, most Europeans shared this view, not just those of us who lived behind the Iron Curtain. Had leaders in Moscow, Prague, Paris and Madrid been asked at the time what Mr. Reagan could do to reinvigorate relations between the United States and Europe, they probably would all have had the same answer: he should abandon his dream of American hegemony and start to consider Europe, including the Soviet Union, as an equal partner.

But Mr. Reagan didn't seek their advice, and communism eventually collapsed. Mr. Reagan reinvigorated relations between the United States and Europe by staying true to his convictions.

Now I live in democratic Slovakia, which is a member of NATO and the European Union. Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, almost everything in our lives has changed. Our part of Europe is no longer under occupation; my friends can travel freely; our children can study at Harvard, Oxford and the Sorbonne; the secret police are not almighty; and a market economy has replaced socialism.

But one thing didn't change: the majority of people in Europe still consider the American president a servant of the military-industrial complex who wants war and scorns ordinary people. So to the question of what George Bush can do to reinvigorate relations between the United States and Europe, I offer the same answer that worked for Ronald Reagan 20 years ago: stay true to your convictions and act accordingly. The salons of postmodern Europe will eventually appreciate your wisdom.

Timing is everything

Still early days. This looks like a trial balloon timed for Bush and Chirac's talks.

U.S. calls for withdrawal. Chirac lending close air support.

One note Charlie

The Hariri Assassination and the Perfidious Jews

Ben Johnson writing at “Moonbat Central” has been mining the WSWS website, at the obvious peril to his digestion:

“An article on the WSWS website alleges, "Among those who play the game of speculating who organized the car bombing in Beirut, the smart money is undoubtedly on Washington and Tel Aviv." The socialists insist, "The Israeli regime has not infrequently carried out acts of terror and blamed them on its enemies." Moreover, "Washington was prepared in advance to seize upon Hariri’s death as a pretext for escalating its threats against Damascus."

The "organ" (remember THAT word) WSWS further speculates, "It is quite possible that any limited concessions the Israeli regime may agree to made as part of the 'peace process' with the Palestinians will be repaid by Washington giving the green light for Israeli provocations and military actions against”

Because they see everything through the filter of their own street slogans about the Palestinians, they are no different than Jihadists out on a jew-hunting mission. The problem they have is that they believe their own BS.

Al-Jezeera reports that Iran is also standing in front of the kool-aid tub, nodding, and blaming Isreal as well.

David Horowitz puts it nicely: “The Stupid Left thinks Israel mistreats Arabs. It does not know that Arab regimes mistreat Arabs. The Satanic Left knows Israel does not mistreat Arabs and Arab regimes do. It wants Israel destroyed not because it thinks Israel is unjust, but rather because it hates Jews.”

You see, some people are so burdened by their own notions that they just CAN’T imagine anything ELSE. After all, get a load of this guy…

Acquired Islamist Deviant Syndrome	Syndrome Islamiste Déviant Acquis
Salafism is spreading like Karposi's sarcoma through a Paris backroom. In the meantime, French youth drunk on Al-Jazira take a one-way ticket to snuff it in Iraq (good riddance).	Le salafisme se répand à travers le corps purulent de la France comme le Sarcome de Karposi dans un backroom à Paname. Pendant ce temps, la jeunesse franchouille saoulée à l'Al-Jazeera part pour crever en Irak (et bon débarras).

Bush's way or the highway	Pas la peine de prendre ton air dépité de pédaloïde
Zeropa can put up or shut up.	La Zéropa, soit elle casque, soit elle ferme sa gueule.

Why is the White House even dignifying Europe with a visit?

By way of an alert commentator on INDC Journal: a misnamed British goon-blog eats up anonymous propaganda about President Bush and Carl Rove, having nothing to do with anything other than their professional relationship, but peppered with a conspiratorial tone. The univers, you see, is not to shaped to their liking or imaginings – so it MUST be evil, wrong, etc., etc. No source, no actual point, just more of the usual mindless slander that invokes Newton’s laws about equal and opposite forces.

Note the item on INDC Journal: lefties speculating about gayness somewhere as if “there’s anything wrong with that”, and they’re on a gay-hunting mission. How bery, bery inclusive and diverse of them…Reminds me of THIS great moment in liberalism where it’s acceptable to goading a candidate personally about something you would otherwise pretend to accept and make a political career out exploiting.
Even Barney Frank quietly hates this kind of thing, and keeps warning the left that they’re teetering on the edge of madness. Look here for more in the way of “Have you stopped beating your wife?” penetrating analyses of any world view that they can’t grasp.

After all, they have no problem parroting Robert Fisk’s hateful take on the Hariri assassination:

“Hariri, I kept repeating. I had sat with him many times, for interviews, at press conferences, at lunches and dinners. He once spoke most movingly about the
son he had lost in a driving accident in America. He had said many times he believed in the afterlife. He had many enemies in Lebanon, Syrians who suspected – correctly – that he wanted them out of Lebanon, real estate enemies – for he had personally purchased large areas of Beirut – and media enemies because he
owned a newspaper and a television station..“

As if the Syrians are naturally entitled to Beirut real estate. They must be. Fisk the earth-god sayeth so, Amen...

The French keep acting as if they actually matter	Les franchouilles continuent à rouler les mécaniques comme s'ils étaient importants pour quelque chose

The Left’s Stockholm Syndrome

Diana West writing in Townhall.com gives us an interesting overview of the perspectives of developments in the European approach to affairs with the Arab world. The rat on that ship is Radical Islamism which has wheedled it's way into the soul of the left.


Explaining the Euro-Arab axis

"Eurabia," the long-awaited book by Bat Ye'or, is a comprehensive, even overwhelming and absolutely shocking explication of how and why it is that Europe is transforming itself into what the Egyptian-born historian calls "a new geopolitical entity -- Eurabia."

...the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD). Created 30-odd years ago at the instigation of France and the Arab League, the practically unknown EAD has provided structural and theoretical underpinnings to a Euro-Arab axis -- Eurabia. These have fostered the political, economic and cultural bonds between Europe and the Arab world that Bat Ye'or maintains were designed to create "a global alternative to American power."
[WHY this is necessary is never raised, but it’s all about OILLLLL.]

The [New York] Times reporter [covering the same subject] seems perplexed. This is how it seems he thinks: To be anti-immigration is to be, as he puts it, "far right" or "extreme right." And to be "far right" or "extreme right" is to be very, very bad. Weren't Nazis both far and extreme right -- or is that the Republican party? Whatever.

[Remember that anti-immigration rhetoric is and has always been a leftist, trades unions obsession, and that Hitler was a leftist who nationalized everything in sight, told people how to live, euthenized them if they cost the society something, and built the Zwangswirtschaft...]

Smith writes: "Many people" -- himself, for instance? -- "worry that the appeal of anti-Islamic politics will continue to spread as Europe's Muslim population grows." No mention, of course, that to be "anti-Islamic politics" is to be anti-sharia law...

The poisonous animus for Jews (and Christians) contained within "Islamic politics," not to mention its totalitarian strictures, fails to move the reporter's silly sense of political direction. His compass tells him anti-immigrationists are on the "far right" (jackboots), while Muslims, he writes, join "left-leaning parties" (save the whales).

Then Smith interviews a Belgian Muslim whose son faces terror charges in Turkey for killing 61 people in a 2003 bombing, and who calls the 9/11 attacks "a poetic act." In his, I suppose, "left-leaning" way, terror-dad "dismisses the far right's fears of an islamization of Europe, even if he does dream of an Islamic theocracy governing the continent someday."

[NYT/ Craig] Smith's conclusion? "In many ways, radical Islamists" -- such as terror-dad -- "are holding Europe's broader, moderate Muslim population hostage..."

[Note that there's no mention whatsoever of anyone else being put upon. The population that radical Islam takes advantage of doesn't matter to the European left and the NYT.]

Forked tongue	Langue fourchée
Zeropeans try to redefine the Holocaust, just like French panty-wastes try to redefine the word 'Jew'.	Les zéropéens essaient de redéfinir l'Holocaust, tout comme les pédaloïdes franchouilles qui essaient de redéfinir le mot 'juif'.

Jurassic Park
The US is trying to take the EU seriously. Really. It's tough to do so with people so enamored with their failed past. In France alone, militant bloggers for change immobilism have been positively gushing over the French Socialist dinosaurs Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Michel Rocard.	Les Etats-unis tentent de prendre l'UE au sérieux. Vraiment. Ce n'est pas évident face à des gens si épris par la faillite de leur passé. Rien qu'en Fwance, les bloggeurs militants qui veulent faire bouger les choses pronent l'immobilisme font les groupies pour les dinosaurs socialos Dominique Strauss-Kahn et Michel Rocard.

EU Killing them softly with their love

"It is inconceivable, unconscionable and reprehensible that the European Union would put its fear of pesticides above the lives of innocent Ugandan mothers and
children," the Congress of Racial Equality’s Cyril Boynes, Jr. said today. "But that is exactly what is happening. EU charge’ d’affaires Guy Rijcken’s vile threat is an abuse of his authority and a serious human rights violation. The Government of Uganda should immediately review his diplomatic credentials."

"For Rijcken and the European Union to equate this devastation with ‘detectable’ levels of DDT in soils, birds or mother’s breast milk is absurd," Boynes said. "For them to suggest that an impoverished country like Uganda should monitor and test all its produce, in case some might have minuscule traces of DDT — to assuage Europeans’ fears of chemicals — is incomprehensible."

The story has been around for a while, but The Canadian Free Press does a great job of picking up an interesting wrinkle on it - the one that's using trade restrictions to kill Africans with European moral vanity about DDT.
It's been long known that the benefits of DDT to reliveing human misery greatly outweigh the risks, and that the US EPA data on the banning of DDT came from the evidence of 4 deat birds. More than 1 billion birds die every year in the US, and virtually all of these are a natural death where they're surrounded by their loved ones...

Thanks to the Rottweiler for bringing The Canadian Free Press to a larger audience.

Annually, around 300 million people get Malaria, and it kills between 1 000 000 and 1 500 000 people per year.

To illustrate the harm the banning of DDT has done to mankind, take a look at this. More background available here. Beyond the devastation of malaria on the world's poor, it also figures into the rapid spread of West Nile virus in North America. Without DDT in their toolkit, public health bodies will have a very hard time eliminating this deadly disease.

Lebanon: events in motion

From The Telegraph:

Hariri's killers 'recruited from Syrian-linked group in Iraq'

"Rachid Mezher, the senior investigator for the Lebanese military tribunal, said that the organisers had been recruited from Islamist groups linked to Syria and operating against the US-led coalition in Iraq."

"Although no firm ties with the Syrian regime have been established, his comments suggest strong circumstantial evidence of a connection."

A previously unknown group calling itself Victory and Jihad in Bilad As-Sham claimed responsibility for Hariri assassination. Bilad As-Sham refers to what we call “the Levant”, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. It’s hard to believe that this group occurs in a vacuum. The only militia that was not disarmed following the settlement of the Civil war in Lebanon was Hizballah, which had Syria as it’s patron. Their stated raison d’etre was the expulsion of the Israelis from Southern Lebanon, after which they said the would no longer act as a militia. That was years ago. Well… here we are. We also find them backing the Syrian position of it’s own innocence AND opposing the parliamentary majority that backed Hariri. Coincidence?

Debka-file is an intelligent but suspicious source of information, they do however let us in on THIS matter: the Syrians military is arming their proponents in Lebanon (who are in the minority) in the event that there is a democratic plurality that calls for their removal. New prime target Walid Jumblatt has hinted at this happening as well.

Anyone who believes that the strange brew of Jihadists and Desposts in the Arab world is something that Arab peoples want for themselves should (once and for all) dispose of that thought. Those facing the tip of the sword have already identifed the evils of all of this, and that they can’t spend the rest of their lives blaming the Israelis for every ache and pain in their lives.

Unwittingly abetting evil

Barabara Stock takes a look at the Al-Queda terror manual and asks if the left is listening:

…Every organization has a “mission statement” and terrorists are no different. What is their goal? They have only one: “The overthrow of the godless regimes and their replacement with an Islamic regime.” The terrorists have some other minor goals, but they are all in place to achieve the main goal of world domination. In case no one has noticed, Islam considers America one of those “Godless regimes.”…

…My personal favorite from the mission statement is: “Spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy.” Does the overblown behavior of a few at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq come to mind? The saddest thing for America is that it was our own media that did the terrorists dirty work for them. The New York Times had that story on its front page for over 48 days. Who needs Al Jezeera when you have The New York Times?...

…Even the expert Islamic terrorist will find himself in the hands of the infidel on occasion. What to do? Knowing that the foolish, liberal West will fall all over itself to be fair with an enemy that doesn’t know the meaning of the word “fair,” the terrorist will be given a trial. When the trial begins, the first thing the good terrorist must do is claim to have been tortured. “At the beginning of the trial, once more the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security [investigators] before the judge.” Very vocal complaints of torture should be given to the judge and shouted to any media that is within earshot, and the names of prison guards should be memorized and repeated. These names should be passed on to the other “brothers” in prison so that they can use them as well…

…When a Marine shoots a man playing dead after seeing his best friend killed the day before by someone using the same tactic, the liberal media wants his head on a pike. The video is shown over and over again on the American cable channels. Again, who needs the enemy press when our own media and press outlets carry out the terrorist’s plans to the letter?

How predictable can they get?

Here’s more encouragement for the taxpayer will find a way to get his money’s worth…

What the Experts' Report Didn't Say

Red-light cameras in Northern Virginia will have to come down July 1, following a House committee's decision yesterday to reject legislation extending the program

reports Christina Bellantoni in the Washington Times.

The pilot program " in six Northern Virginia localities and Virginia Beach " gave police departments an affordable way of catching red-light runners. Supporters say the cameras make roads safer.

However, critics say the cameras are really money-making devices that invade a resident's privacy and cause rear-end collisions.

Delegate Clifford L. Athey, Warren County Republican, said he knows that jammed-packed Northern Virginia roads are drawing comparisons to the Wild West and Dodge City.

But "the citizens who live there have some constitutional rights," he said.

Mr. Athey said ticketing with cameras denies a motorist the rights "to confront one's accuser" and "to be left alone." …

Officials from several jurisdictions dispute the argument that the cameras are for making money, not safety. …

[A] study, by the Virginia Transportation Research Council, also recommends the state continue the program. Red-light violations declined by more than 20 percent in four of the seven jurisdictions, according to the study. However, the study also showed that the number of rear-end crashes has increased at some intersections. …

I post this simply because in Europe, the norm for the politicians, the media, and the citizenry — once they have been presented with an "authoritative" report by officials and experts, national as well as local — is to agree and say, "Oh yes, this is something good for our nation that needs to be implemented", or, at best (i.e., at their most revolutionary), complain privately (râler) while doing nothing…

To remain in the area of rules of the road along with greater law enforcement, Nicolas Sarkozy recently implemented tougher action by the police, among others with regards to speeding vehicles being snapped by automatic cameras, whose fines allegedly arrive within a day or two and are taken as gospel. French TV showed a man calling the police authorities to ask for lenience, since — as the fine he had received clearly indicated — he had only exceeded the speed limitby one half kilometer (0.5 km or 0.3 miles); he was met by refusal, for, as the policeman manning the phone explained lamely, the new rules was based on a policy of zero tolerance.

Forget the "constitutional rights" bit: Since the stiffer rules and sanctions were implemented, I have never felt as unsafe on the périphérique, the autoroute-like roundway circling Paris. It feels as if everybody, myself included, has lost their adrenalin and is falling asleep at the wheel because there is the sensation that nobody is moving. An elderly Frenchman wrote as much in Le Midi Libre: people driving at such a ridiculously slow speed are even less alert than before, since they start looking at the scenery in order to tone down their impatience.

I realize not everybody will agree with me on this — especially people with harrowing tales of loss of loved ones — but suffice it to say that, with a far larger population, Germany, whose autobahn has no speed limit, has (unless I am mistaken) a smaller death and accident rate than France.