All your pay cheques belong to us

¡No Pasarán! is about giving alternatives to our readers. In that vein, today one can watch hours upon hours of the US Senate as they debate whether to debate that proposed smash and grab healthcare bill -or- one can cut to the chase and watch the quick version of what will end up happening should it all become law:

Those leaked emails

Just what is going on with these leaked Hadley Centre East Anglia Climate Research Unit emails related to those climate "scientists" behaving badly:

[T]he Team had a problem: actual reconstructions "diverge" from the instrumental series in the last part of 20th century. For instance, in the original hockey stick (ending 1980) the last 30-40 years of data points slightly downwards. In order to smooth those time series one needs to "pad" the series beyond the end time, and no matter what method one uses, this leads to a smoothed graph pointing downwards in the end whereas the smoothed instrumental series is pointing upwards — a divergence. So Mann’s solution was to use the instrumental record for padding, which changes the smoothed series to point upwards as clearly seen in UC’s figure (violet original, green without "Mike's Nature trick").

Naughty, naughty.

If a consensus falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make any sound?

Talk of the Town Shanty

Word has it that on the northern edge of the city of lost souls, where east meets weird, that an interesting Economic Indicator has turned up. At the Porte de Clignancourt flea market, a thing has cropped up wherein people are buying opened and partially consumed food with one another, such as half a jar of jam, or half a box of powdered milk – a throwback to the meagerness of postwar life.

In a ‘rich country’ where purchasing power is mysteriously weak in spite of an inflated currency, this isn’t so much an anomaly as a worrying sign. It’s easy to understand this otherwise disturbing evidence of the failure of Social Democratic economic intervention: just wait for the locals to blame ‘Capitalism’ – whatever it is that they think that Capitalism really is.

You can almost smell the ‘social justice’ in all of it.

Just What the Order Doctored

Soeren Kern writing on his own site and in the Brussels Journal makes clear for us all what has become obvious by drips: the EU doesn not only not lend itself to any sort of democracy other than a Potemkin village of symbolism and plenary plentitudes, but its’ leaders seem to rather prefer to meet in a (now unlawful) smoke-filled room to select it’s non-titular lider maximo free of the burden of public knowledge.

Leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union are meeting in Brussels on November 19 to choose the first-ever European president and European foreign minister. European political elites say these two new jobs are needed so that the notoriously divided EU can begin speak with one voice on the global stage. Once that happens, they contend, the EU will assume its rightful role as a world superpower and act as a counter-balance to the United States.

Choices Made With “Succession by Palace Coup” as their Ideal

As if hoping for some sort of Ernst Blofeld-like Evil Genius who will restore their egos to it’s rightful place as emotional rulers of the globe, Kern compares the process of selection rather favorably to those that place in the Soviet Union where the 99,9% votes for the people’s man were thought to become more plausible over time.

Today, these so-called Eurocrats oversee more than 100,000 pages of EU legislation, much of which has primacy over national legislation and parliaments. Indeed, unelected bureaucrats in Brussels now exercise so much power that they dictate what elected leaders can or cannot do in more than 30 policy areas.

Kern is giving them too much credit. The public actually knows about this affair to a degree, and the press has found it fit to discuss in the manner of a “who’s hot and who’s not thing” after the fashion of a gossip magazine printed on newsprint. Complaints about the lack of a public voice in all of this is people characterized as mumbling neurotic who know not what they say. Soon these reprobate Democracy-fetishists will surely have a nice, warm, comforting Sanitarium bed, for all three of them.

In the absence of a consensus candidate, the contest has degenerated into a race to the bottom. In secretive backroom horse-trading, the center-right, which controls the European Parliament, has staked its claim to the presidency; the center-left will get the foreign policy job. There are now half a dozen or more contenders for both jobs. And the one thing all the candidates have in common is that they are virtually unknown outside of Europe.

So much for that policy of truth stuff that their parents never taught them. After all, think about it, if public acclimation was required, they might miss out on THIS gem of a Cub Scout Den Mother:

The leading hopeful for the presidency is Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, whose biggest claim to fame is writing haiku poetry in his native Dutch. According to the London-based Economist magazine, Van Rompuy’s main foreign policy experience stems from his involvement in a Belgo-Dutch row over the dredging of the River Scheldt.

High-minded, fresh thinking stuff that will define the 21st century world as they imagine, no doubt but the matter of precedents and examples doesn’t speak well for the future if this is the heady and philosophically pure point from which future corruption of the dream will ensue:

The London-based Telegraph newspaper quotes another Eastern European official as complaining: “Trying to work out who is going to be President of the EU Council is not dissimilar to decoding who was in or out in the Kremlin in the 1970s. It seems strange to many of us that 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall we have to dust off our Kremlinology skills here in Brussels.”

Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

French Secret Service in 1924: NSDAP Leader "Adolphe Hitler" Is a "German Mussolini" at the Head of "Fascist-Type" Paramilitary Groups

During the 1920s, it turns out, a certain "Adolphe Jacob Hitler" was under surveillance by France's secret service, writes Thomas Wieder in Le Monde, as were several up-and-coming Nazi leaders as well as Germans from all parts of the political spectrum such as Konrad Adenauer. A visit to the national archives also brings to light the fact that French agents attempted to infiltrate the Nazi movement in Germany.

Peu rigoureux quant aux origines de celui qu'ils présentèrent comme le "Mussolini allemand", et dont ils dénoncèrent la présence à la tête de groupes paramilitaires d'un "genre fasciste", les agents chargés de rédiger sa fiche [en 1924] ne se sont pas privés d'ajouter aux données factuelles quelques jugements de valeur. On apprend, par exemple, qu'Hitler "n'est pas un imbécile mais (...) un très adroit démagogue". Ce qui ne veut pas dire, pour autant, que sa capacité de nuisance fût jugée alarmante. Evoquant sa "tentative de coup d'Etat le 8 novembre 1923 contre le gouvernement bavarois", le fonctionnaire français rappelle ainsi que celle-ci a "échoué lamentablement". D'ailleurs, le dirigeant du parti nazi ne serait, selon lui, que "l'instrument de puissances supérieures" : un jugement que l'on sait aujourd'hui erroné mais qui correspond à la vulgate de l'époque, laquelle faisait volontiers de Hitler la marionnette du général Ludendorff, l'ancien numéro 2 des armées allemandes pendant la première guerre mondiale, et dont le futur chancelier s'éloigna après le putsch manqué de 1923.

…l'archiviste [des Archives nationales (www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr)] est formelle : "On fichait tout le monde !" [français ou autre]…

De Hitler à Goering, "recherché par les autorités allemandes pour complicité de haute trahison", en passant par Goebbels, désigné comme "membre influent du NSDAP", ou Himmler, simplement qualifié de "raciste", la plupart des futurs potentats du III^e Reich eurent droit à leurs dossiers. Une plongée dans ces chemises jaunies donne un aperçu de ce qui préoccupait les autorités d'occupation. … On y apprend … au détour d'une lettre destinée à "Son Excellence Edouard Herriot, président du conseil et ministre des affaires étrangères", comment la France essaya d'infiltrer le mouvement nazi. En juillet 1924, le haut-commissaire Paul Tirard détaille ainsi les "intéressantes découvertes" faites par ses services au sujet d'une "école d'entraînement militaire" située à Darmstadt. On peut y lire notamment que "l'un des élèves qui a été identifié de façon précise par la Sûreté a déclaré qu'il existait à l'école de l'organisation d'Hitler (...) un important stock d'uniformes, de revolvers neufs et quelques fusils", et que "chaque élève posséderait deux ou trois matraques en caoutchouc".

…les partisans de Hitler furent loin d'être les seuls à inquiéter les autorités françaises. A droite comme à gauche, il semble en fait qu'aucun mouvement politique n'ait échappé à la vigilance des fonctionnaires français.

Choices, choices

What type of aegis would you prefer to live under:

A) An authoritarian regime based upon the rule of man vs. the rule of law, or
B) A theocratic regime based upon the interpretations* of cherry-picked Biblical passages

If you think feel a combination of A and B is just the ticket, you are in luck!

*interpretations based upon the readings of a select few individuals who are far more caring, smarter and nuanced than the great unwashed masses, of course.

Just what the doctor ordered

When faced with a problem like this:

Improper payments in the Medicare and Medicaid programs totaled $55 billion in fiscal 2009, according to documents provided by OMB.

The only answer is, of course:

More governmental involvement in health insurance, not less.

Welcome to the mind of the statist.

Frankie Says Relax

Only among Arabs would you find anyone getting enraged about the supposed superior purity and virtue of THEIR kind of $10 whore.

A Muslim driver drove a Christian man to a Muslim brothel, then went out to call a Muslim mob that broke into the brothel, dragged out the Christian and stabbed 16 times after pouring acid over him. As the victim was rushed to hospital in critical condition, the mob started attacking and looting Christian properties.

And of course in retribution to the man with oh-so-much to give, they did the usual thing, and trashed what they thought might have been his neighborhood, cause, y’know, the neighborhood had some causal thing going there.

Dr. Naguib Gobrial, President of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, in a press release addressed to the Minister of Interior, strongly condemned the vandalism and looting of Christian properties, and criticized the prevailing state of fear and insecurity, under which the Christian Copts live. He also attacked the inaction of the Governor of Minya and the failure of the security agencies to ensure peace and stability.

I suppose it’s because the hypocritical mob couldn’t be reached.

And speaking of $10 whores...

Turns Ugly? It IS Ugly.

A recent cash giveaway stunt for an undecipherable internet retailer called “mailorama.fr” went haywire when more ‘youts’ showed up than the gift giveaways could satisfy.

An Internet company that planned to throw envelopes of cash to passers-by from the top of a bus in Paris had to cancel the publicity stunt for security reasons after thousands of people turned up, police said on Saturday.

About 5,000 people gathered near the Eiffel Tower, with groups spilling into neighbouring streets and bursting through crowd barriers before the planned handout of banknotes

The funny part came later: with the rather typical interviews and “after action” reporting that got little more than a nod. In order to take it out on Mairolama.fr, the precious children justified trashing miscellaneous property by saying, essentially, that there were people rich enough to own a car who deserve it for their misfortune at a promotional stunt. While the stunt WAS badly run, legal proceeding are being lodged by the aggrieved former car owners and shop keepers against Mailorama, not the douchebags who, all bobos seem to agree, are just ‘blowing off a little steam’.

I know it’s over, but it MUST be stopped

Nebulous questions about what ‘lurks behind it all’ have, as expected’ bubbled up through the sewerage of their social thinking as well.

An anniversary the socialists don't really like to talk about too much

What is it about the utopian dreams of socialism and communism which always end in death:

On the death tape, Jones urged Temple members to commit "revolutionary suicide". Such "revolutionary suicide" had been planned by the Temple before and, according to Jonestown defectors, its theory was "you can go down in history, saying you chose your own way to go, and it is your commitment to refuse capitalism and in support of socialism."

After Jones announced that "the congressman is dead" no dissent occurs on the death tape. Directly after this, referring to his Red Brigade security squad that shot Ryan, Jones stated "But the Red Brigade's the only one that made any sense anyway" and "Red Brigade showed them justice." In response to reactions of seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones commanded "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity."

The end of a love affair....

Breaking-up is just so hard to do:

Barack Obama cast himself as a "citizen of the world" when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely, his country's addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health-care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats. He was either unwilling or unable to convince skeptics in his own ranks and potential defectors from the ranks of the Republicans to support him, for example, by promising alternative investments as a compensation for states with large coal reserves.

Obama's announcement at the APEC summit that it was no longer possible to secure a binding treaty in Copenhagen is the result of his own negligence. China, India and other emerging economies have always spoken openly about the fact that the US, as the world's largest emitter of CO2, has to be proactive in commiting itself to targets agreed on by way of international negotiation. But that is not America's style. The US is quite happy to see itself as the leader of the Western world. But when it comes to climate change, America has once again failed miserably -- for the umpteenth time.

As with most things in life, there is levity to be found:

It may seem arrogant to take the Americans to task to such a degree. But at least in Europe, many are willing to question their own lifestyle and to look at events beyond their own borders.

Sure you are....

Quotes that make us smile

"Well, for one, I know nobody wants to pay taxes for anybody else to go to the doctor — I don't," said Kate Kuhn, 20, of Acworth, Ga. "I don't want to pay for somebody to use my money that I could be using for myself."

Rather flies in the face of what the "experts" would like you to think feel.

We know the real reasons....

Barack Obama acknowledged today that time has run out to secure a binding climate deal at Copenhagen and began moving towards a two-stage process that would delay a legal pact until next year at the earliest.

During a hastily convened breakfast meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from the moribund negotiations by aiming for a broad political agreement and postponing contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer.

Our friend, as always, put his finger on the real reasons years ago:

They are Were Who They’ve Been Waiting For

Don’t the emissions and transmissions of the White House sound historically familiar? No, not the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, the ugly days of nascent Communism forced on Germans, knowing full well that in their vanquishment and impoverishment, that no crisis should go to waste. As we approach the day of remembrance for the fall of the Berlin wall 20 years ago, we find the ghost of the methods and philosophies behind that repression rearing their ugly head with the election of the left in America. The baiting and taunting, and then the intimidation seem to have been drawn directly from the retrograde left’s cookbook, only to find another young generation of naïve souls to turn into a movement’s Pinkertons.

The most important paper factories in West Germany are the property of a tiny group of millionaires who brought Hitler to power and used his policies of conquest to enrich themselves. A leading and legally convicted war criminal like Flick could in 1960 gain possession of the largest paper-producing firm in West Germany, the Feldmühle-AG. West Germany's leading newspapers, both in terms of circulation and as mouthpieces of the ruling class, are owned by finance capitalists, or are subject to their advertising dictatorship. During the early stages of capitalism, individual printers owned newspapers, but today a press system has developed that is typical of the larger monopoly system. A small group of oil, steel, and bank lords own the leading South German Adenauer paper, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" along with numerous local papers that are published by the same firm. The press lord Springer, a money-grubber of the post-war era, not only controls the press system of West Germany's largest city Hamburg, but used it as a base to conquer the rest of the country.

All rehashed by our enlightened “educated” youth today as the media monopoly argument, and the need for all “guilds” to do their part for social justice.

Still, that is only a part of the function of journalism in the German Democratic Republic. Its primary mission is to build the enthusiasm of its readers, listeners and viewers for the noble cause of socialism, and to explain to them the laws of historical development in our day. More than that, as the Politbüro of the ZK of the SED said in its decision on press matters of 29 April 1959, the task is "not only to influence and change thoughts, but simultaneously actions in every area of the socialist transformation. . . Each editorial staff should therefore strive to initiate its own actions in the political economic and cultural spheres."

In reality, then, as now, all they are who they’ve been busting heads for:

One of the most terrifying achievements of the Nazi regime was its relentless capture and corruption of German youth. In Eastern Germany, the Communists have proved themselves as good as the Nazis at that deadly game. Their Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth) seems like a near-perfect reincarnation of the Hitler Youth. The world might get a good look at the young Communists when they stage their long-heralded "march on Berlin" on Whitsunday (see above). Last week, TIME Correspondent Enno Hobbing cabled this preview of the FDJ:

"Be Prepared." The process of corruption begins early. Nine hundred thousand children between the ages of six and 14 are enrolled

[SNIP]

The temper and tactics of FDJ chieftains was well-expressed by agile, aggressive Robert Bialek, who explained: "We'll take care of our church and political enemies. You sock them in the teeth until they fall. Then they write a letter of protest. You let them get up, read the letter, and then knock them down again."

[SNIP]

Again & again, Communist oldtimers din into young ears: "You are the future of the German people." In response to such accolades, one FDJ member recently told an American: "I'm not much now, but when Germany is all Communist, I might be a mayor. When we control all Europe, I might be a state governor."