Learned to Feel Guilty When Caught

Meet a PhD who just “couldn’t seem to realize” an abundance of things over the course of 3 years that your average high school drop-out could dope out in half an hour:

Despite having worked on South Africa's secret apartheid-era nuclear programme in the 1980s, when he was approached in 2000 by a nuclear industry contact about manufacturing a "compact pipework system" for an unnamed client, he'd said he hadn't batted an eyelid.

The client had paid him a handsome fee of 1 million euros (1.3 million dollars) to find a company in South Africa to manufacture the system.
On examining the plans Wisser and his employee Swiss-born engineer Daniel Geiges realized the drawings were for a uranium enrichment plant, but it never occurred to him that it could be for use in a nuclear weapons programme, Wisser previously claimed.

An old friend and fellow engineer with experience in the nuclear industry, Johan Meyer, of Tradefin Engineering near Johannesburg, was the recipient of the contract.
Wisser repeatedly claimed he did not suspect he was abetting Libya's nuclear programme until mid-2003 and that he believed he was working for Pakistan's nuclear energy programme.

The penny still did not drop when two Libyan engineers arrived in South Africa to inspect the plant in 2002.

Even after "the realization dawned" - when Johan Meyer received a payment from Libya in 2003 - Wisser did not immediately intervene to pull the plug on the plant.
It was only when Italian and US authorities intercepted a ship carrying parts for Libya's nuclear programme off the coast of Italy in October 2003, exposing Moamer Gaddafi's then atomic ambitions, that he gave the order to destroy it.

These are not disillusioned post-Glasnost Russians with doctorates driving cabs, these are Grade A European Science Sluts.

What do you get for this serious a threat to world peace? Three years at home wearing an ankle bracelet.

Meet Someone Who Gets It

From an oddly titled blog:

The United States, with increasing trade and interests in Asia and the Pacific Rim, is unlikely to maintain large military forces in defence of the European Union; and it would be very wrong for Europeans to expect it to do so. Indeed, many American forces have already been redeployed from Britain and Germany to Central Asia and the Middle East. The future will hold only more of the same. And why should Americans defend Europe? Are we not rich enough to defend ourselves? Do we not have the political will to browbeat our enemies into doing our will? Are we unable to stand up for our values and interests with the use of armed force? Europe’s future is bleak if the answer to all of these questions is not a firm ‘yes’. A strong European Union will have the military and political cohesion to work with the United States in order to sustain Western primacy. A weak Europe will distract American concerns, and empower forces hostile to Western civilisation.

Anyone wondering where the "grow a nutsack" attitide from Americans comes from, look no further.

Comment gérer les inévitables désaccords lorsqu'il s'en présente : en les théâtralisant ou en les maîtrisant ?

Il sera difficile en réalité de sortir de la formule "amis, alliés, pas alignés". (...) Si nous oublions un des trois thèmes de cette formule, la réalité nous y ramènera. Ces relations comportent d'ailleurs une seule difficulté sérieuse : comment gérer les inévitables désaccords lorsqu'il s'en présente : en les théâtralisant ou en les maîtrisant ?

Le Monde publishes excerpts from Hubert Védrine's report.

Soirée Dantec

"Well that would be a real big problem for us, no question about it"

The Petraeus Report might prove to be entirely too positive for some "anti-war" liberals to believe. It seems that since the day this war began there has been an echo chamber of nay-sayers who have proclaimed that we "just aren't seeing any progress in Iraq." When progress actually emerges, they choose not to believe it.

Benjamin Duffy goes on to ask why liberals seem so intent on not believing that General David Petraeus might be making a difference in Iraq?

I have a few guesses on that. First, liberals are so bent on losing this war that they cannot tolerate success. Second, losing the war in Iraq and blaming it on conservatives would benefit them in elections for years to come. Third, the idea of this whole Iraq project backfiring on us gives them a rush of schadenfreude.

Vermin

Useless Old Europe thigamajig

The Economist says that Belgium should pack it in.


They were good for a few laughs. Especially during beer-fueled drunken rampages.

Plantu remembers 9-11 a few days early

How nice of the prick.


The airplane is labeled "American mortgages"
Cécilia: Should I go to Prada, yes or no? Sarkozy: wait a second, dear.


It's a yearly fixation with him.

"Dude, I am on Marx's Tomb!"

In the States, mainstream media types have called Michael Moore's Sicko his "least political film". But in his interview with Thomas Sotinel, the Le Monde reporter states that this seems to be Michael's coming-out as "a socialist". To which Moore answers (retranslated from the French) that, in a scene in Sicko,

I film myself on Marx's tomb. Nobody mentioned it. In the reviews in America, they wrote, "it's his least political film." And I say: "Dude, I am on Marx's Tomb!" Do I need to take out a baseball bat and hit them on the head [for them to understand]?!

In case you hadn't understood, this says — and this reveals — almost more about the powers-that-be (both in the U.S. and abroad) than about Michael Moore: being on the socialist/marxist-bordering left, for the MSM and America's Eastern élites (as for Europe's MSM and élites), is mainstream, is normal, is understandable, is OK, is cool. It is avant-garde. Beyond being (naturally) avant-garde and therefore (obviously) a positive and endearing trait, it hardly bares mentioning. And it is "not political" (that's only a dirty game that America's hit-below-the-belt Republicans play).

Update: As far as I know, the best answer to Michael Moore's Sicko arguments is provided by Stuart Browning's Free Market Cure films…

More on Michael Moore in the archives (2004-2016)…

You have one year to kill your baby and still get away with probation plus counseling

Just when you think that you actually share a little common ground with liberals, writes Benjamin Duffy, they will surprise the heck out of you with an absolutely outrageous new policy proposal.

Dan Greenberg's Artwork

In preparation for the publication of the second volume of General Leonardo, Dan Greenberg has opened his new blog…

Gitmo alumni already miss their Alma Mater

You can't go home again.

Belgium "shocked to the core"

All the more interesting following the recent attempted attacks in Denmark and Germany. The official party line in Fwance is that such problems absolutely do not exist here. The French youth rise up, from time to time, solely as a means of social protest and they fully adhere to France's Republican values. N'importe quoi.

The report was authored by the hyper-arrogant Hubert Vedrine

French study finds that the French are arrogant.

What’s A Scribbler To Do When Events Don’t Match His World View?

In reporting the foiled terror attacks in Germany, an AP hack implies that even though the targets were centered on US citizens in Germany, with the obvious intention of scaring the German public into placing distance between itself and the US (Zapatero style) through the use of terror, that deposing Saddam Hussein is somehow behind it.

Germany, which did not send troops to Iraq, has been spared terrorist attacks such as the mass transit bombings in Madrid and London - although its involvement in the attempt to stabilize Afghanistan has led to fears it might be targeted.

Why use Europe for this? Apart from the fact that Zapatero’s actions have conclusively proved to the drooling fanatical observer that they are pushovers and readily manipulated, but that they also have a kind of inability to lead an idea domestically as well. In short they are the softest of soft targets from top to bottom.

I suppose al-Qaida have spiritual time machines in the AP writer’s mind, since the US involvement in Iraq must surely have had a lot to do with this kind of thing in 1999, and long since forgotten since the rump of the European public found the US as an enemy instead of the savages trying to bomb their people, cities, and public institutions.

Serguei’s Vane Fantasies about the World

”... It’s so unusual to see you here ...”
“... I feel a bit like I’m at home ...”

1. Implying that Bush has not come to Iraq often enough
2. Implying that the US is some kind of military regime (which he would LOVE if it involved south American leftists,) and that being surrounded by soldiers is “like home.”
3. That the soldiers have to string together a busted flag staff
4. That there are nothing but US soldiers in Iraq.
5. That they are faceless to the point of being inhuman.

I could go on, but why bother when Serguei through his actions proves himself to be no better than the filthy illiterate savages that are being tacitly supported in a Hizballah-loving “celebration” of 9/11.

The Antidote to Euro-Lethargy

So Howard Husock quotes one reader in the Wall Street’s Journal’s Opinion Journal Taste Commentary:

It has been 24 years since I last moved, but in the decade before that I had ten different addresses. The ability to move and to adapt to a new adventure is a function of personal ambition and a willingness to pursue new adventures. It often accompanies youth and fundamental personal change such as having children and getting married. I have acquaintances who are so place-bound that they voluntarily impose a ceiling on themselves which traps them in a world of low incomes and narrow social contacts. Staying home limits our range of choices and is almost an un-American habit. I prefer to throw in with Horace Greeley and "Go west, young man."

- Thanky-thanky to Val

Minimum Wage, Minimum Effort

Wage-parity freaks are running a race to the bottom:

Luxembourg, which has by far the highest per capita income in the EU, also has the highest minimum wage. But the country also has the highest percentage of workers having to live on that minimum wage. In some other countries which do have minimum wages, they mark little more than a lower ceiling of workers' payment, with just around 1% of the workforce being on minimum wage.

It might be twice as high, but 11 times as many French workers are stuck at the minimum wage as they are in the U.S. Hint: when you try to divert attention from the lack of growth by discussing abstractions of relative purchasing power vs. income, you’re missing the fact that one never hears of economists getting stoked about the future poverty reducing potential of “Purchasing Power Parity” when there is little in the way basic growth. This is the detritus of decades of micromanagement.

"Ever since the introduction of the 35-hour week, we've heard discussion about purchasing power, not about salaries," Sarkozy said — rebuffing the business leaders' frequent retort that purchasing power is mostly an old union chestnut to justify demands for pay hikes. "Explaining there's no problem of purchasing power in France is trying to pull the public's leg...

- Shukran to überchav Georges who has the
stomach to dig through the confusion at Euractiv.com.

The Trifecta !!!

Rival gangs wage urban warfare at the Gare du Nord for the third time in one week and French police are worried. But you ain't seen nothin' yet. Pretty soon, French police will make with the furrowed brow and the stern look of disapproval.

La Fwance: quand les assistés trucident les travailleurs

When welfare recipients make a stand against the man they go for the jugular.

"If none of the above is possible, then smile."

You would think that being friendly is obvious to most everyone in the hospitality business. That only seems to apply outside of the land of the forcefield of cultural superiority cultural exception.

France was last week jolted by the realisation that, while still blessed with 79 million annual visitors, the country has slipped to third place - behind the US and Spain - for income from tourism.

But it's still the destination no. 1 for those who enjoy being personally abused.

Europeans: working hard or hardly working?

In any case, Americans are busting ass.

Authorities Blow Meat Whistle

Superior, superb, deeply caring social management rapidly deals with public health problem... after 14 months:

Berlin - Around 150 tons of rotten meat have been shipped from the southern German state of Bavaria to Berlin companies making Turkish-style doner kebab skewers and then distributed across Germany, prosecutors said Friday.

Bush! Isn't it obvious?

Trendy Celebrity Truthers

In the wake of Thierry Meyssan, who went from unknown activist to celebrity author overnight thanks to Trutherism and Thierry Ardisson, there is no shortage of well known French who are trending towards Trutherism. The recent surge in Trutherism among celebrity french was kicked off by Karl Zero who, after losing his cushy position on Canal+, started his own web based TV show and made heavy use of Trutherism to boost his audience.

Suckers

An Italian study has concluded that French taxpayers financially support the most expensive bureaucracy in the EU. Thanks to Bertrand.

<LMAO/>

French über-adviser and soothsayer extraordinaire, Jacques Attali, states (with a straight face no less) that France must aim for 5% economic growth. No word yet on whether the 5% should be attained before or after the EU growth target stated in the long forgotten but fast approaching deadline put forth as part of the Lisbon Strategy. <ROTFL/>.

The Difference Between Labor Day and May Day

Much like the myth that socialism alleviates poverty, after hearing for years about how working less makes Europeans more productive, the lid gets blown off by those nettlesome facts. Le Figaro reported today:

Les Américains meilleurs travailleurs Les Etats-Unis se maintiennent à la tête de la productivité mondiale, creusant l'écart avec les autres pays développés, alors que l'Asie de l'est a doublé en dix ans sa production par travailleur, a indiqué le Bureau international du travail (BIT) dans un rapport.

Americans are the Best Workers Widening the gap with other developed countries, the United States [economy] remains the world’s most productive, while workers in the Asian Rim doubled their productivity in ten years – so indicated a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

I’m sure we’ll get a tirade any day now about the wrongness of reporting that, or how the editors of Le Figaro are secretly Americans who just “look out for their own”, or some similarly overblown emotional abstraction.