And Nietzsche is Still Dead

Like the “Roe Effect”, it’s a sentiment that could only last one generation:

"Having children is selfish," the now-35-year-old says.

A vegetarian by age 15, Vernelli met her husband at an animal rights demo; on the morning of her sterilization, he gave her a "Congratulations" card.

Each new child, she says, "uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."

What a depressing take on the value of human life. But it was echoed by another eco-crazed couple profiled by the Mail.

Sarah Irving, a 31-year-old green magazine editor, and Mark Hudson, a 37-year-old health care worker, reminisced about how, "after a year of dating, we started talking about sterilization."

Suspicions of laziness and attention-getting behavior aside, this notion isn’t just impossible to have an aspirationally-minded Indian or Chinese citizen to invalidate with the loving acceptance of making a new life, it’s anti-human. It’s a perverse termination of a tangible and real life for an inanimate other form of life. The thought itself is the abstraction that places a thinking being with those of plants that doesn’t. Like animals, they are driven alone by their genes to reproduce and consume. Only humans can act with will, and decide when it’s time to reproduce
just enough to match their resources.

Animals, on the other hand, will eat and breed until their surroundings can no longer provide them with enough nourishment and shelter, and then test their own extinction. It’s something they’ve been doing long before the Prius, the bicycle, or the human found a use for the opposed thumb.

Who, in the end, is it better for the earth’s surface to have as a dominant environmental actor?

But beyond the comical absurdity of frequent-flying foes of fossil fuels is a vastly more important point: Man is more than a consumer of food and a producer of waste.

The late economist Julian Simon, that prophetic debunker of Malthusian overpopulation theory, proved that people are no drain on our precious planet's natural resources. Rather, they are the solution to scarcities, thanks to the increasing ingenuity of successive generations.

Not so in the view of the essencial environmentalist. To them consumers of food and a producers of waste really IS all we are. It really undermines any warm platitude they might spit out about “worrying about the next generation”.
Maybe we should thank her.

Vati’s Armee

Check out where the helicopters for Darfur aren’t:

THEY are on the front line of the war on terror, but German pilots facing the Taliban are insisting they stop at tea time every day to comply with health and safety regulations.

The helicopter pilots, who provide medical back-up to Nato ground troops, set off for their base by mid-afternoon so they can be grounded by sundown.

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One Norwegian cavalry officer, who was engaged in a day-long fight with more than 40 Taliban near Jari Siya in Badghis, said: “It’s hopeless. We were attacking the bad guys, then [at] three or four o’clock, the helicopters are leaving.

“We had to go back to base. We should have had Norwegian helicopters. At least they can fly at night.”

Abandoned by their western allies, the 600 men from the Afghan army’s 209 Corps were forced to retreat until a convoy of American Humvees arrived the next day to reinforce them.

The title might have a “German-bashing” tone, but it’s completely deserved.

Speaking of Darfur, another veteran of UNIFIL is having a hard time marshalling any support from other Europeans – even though the Darfur operation hasn’t yet been awarded the Scarlet Letter of “Imperialist War for Chimpy W. Hitlerburton” by the usual perceptive geniuses who are always eager prove their originality:

Asked whether the Darfur spillover mission could proceed without these aircraft, O'Dea said, "In short — no."

He specified Germany and Italy as two countries with "ample military resources, and so far they haven't made any contribution to this particular mission."

The German government declined to comment Tuesday. Last month, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said his country was willing to provide only "political support."

The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed no troops would be sent to Chad and indicated no comment would be made in response to O'Dea. But the Italian Foreign Ministry pointed out that Italy is the leading contributor to the U.N. force in Lebanon and has troops in Afghanistan and the Balkans.

O'Dea spoke out a day after a briefing in Brussels from Lt. Gen. Pat Cash, the Irish general commanding the EU force.

"The mission won't be deployed unless the force commander is absolutely certain he has the required air support to make it successful," O'Dea said.

Appearing to be the only person in the room who understands something, O’Dea said:

"The carnage in Darfur coupled with the multiple conflicts in the border areas between Darfur, Chad and the Central African Republic has scarred the lives of countless thousands of innocent men, women and children. It will be our job to help and protect them," O'Dea said.

Please, Squire, just a Farthing!

Rebuilding dystopia, what with all that "diversity", "social justice" an under-development provides you:

"It's all about sustainable development and bringing some humanity back to today's monotonous, machine-driven jobs," Stephane de Veyrac, from the French National Stud Organisation, said at this week's annual conference of French mayors.

Hey, Greenies! Whether it makes any sense or not, you’re going BACK to the Dickensian future!

French towns worried about fuel prices, pollution and striking transport workers need look no further than the horse.
Horses are a possible alternative for vehicles such as school buses and refuse trucks, say groups eager to pick up on global concerns about eco-friendly transport.

De Veyrac's group says it is the first in France to offer consulting on a wide range of horse-powered vehicles that could also haul bottles and aid street sweeping.

It doesn’t matter that mechanization was a response to the needs of a populated planet which would otherwise live miserably without the productivity and efficiency of those new fangled things like “the horseless carriage”, or that the inefficiencies of using animal power were tearing the environment apart...

"It is a serious alternative -- horses are already in use in over 70 towns as replacements for gasoline- and diesel-powered service vehicles," said de Veyrac, pointing to the 'Hippoville' prototype parked in the exhibition hall.

Behold, the march of progress! Or is that the only kind of response you can have to having a gun put to your head by city dwelling environmental crackpot lit majors who can’t add up to 6,5 billion (people)? I can’t tell anymore.

Bartender! One Rijksuniversiteit Groningen over here!

Since Art Buchwald is dead, we now bring you Jules Crittenden’s Thanksgiving for Europeans, some of whom are so wrapped around the axle that they spend more time peevishly hating anything that they can remotely relate to America than selecting their festive garb.

I was just discussing some of our quaint customs in an email exchange with my Dutch pal Michael van der Galien. He’s in an American Studies program in Rotterdam or Amsterdam or some other dam place,* so I suggested he get a bunch of his clog-wearing dike-plugging buddies to stage a real American Thanksgiving. Sort of like World War II GI re-enacting or cowboy dressup, both popular among the Euros.

Because, you know, even though they like to give us a hard time, they actually love us and want to be like us. So here’s the deal.

Everyone has to dress like an American .. oversized football jerseys or tank-tops with baggy shorts and Nikes or Velcro sandals. High school football hero crewcut or blow-dired 1970a disco hair. Chinos and polo shirts and a new boy’s regular if you want to be more formal. Or wear your oversized baseball hat sideways and pants half off your ass. Oversized is pretty much the key to everything, unless you’re going the American nerd route, in which can everything must be symbolically too tight. Everyone’s going to need an American name. Earl’s the best one. Just call everyone Earl. Everyone has to act like an American … kind of clumsy and stupid, knocking things over … talk like an American … loud braying, with a lot of bragging and guffawing … use American table manners … pig-with-a-stick, mouth-open-while-chewing preferred. Ostentatious grace invoking the name of Jesus required. Some kind of family fight. I’d suggest a contentious abortion debate over dinner ending with gunplay.

Just as long as you use European weapons, which in spite of being an inanimate object which the same would concider innately bad in the same way a Prius is innately good, are something the argumentative would insist are of superior in quality. The best in the world. Better than yours’, as long as you aren’t asking. And you're especially wrong if you use them.

Hack reporters

The underpaid stringers over at Rue89 are busy getting their wires crossed. They are mistaking recent MSM lack of coverage of the war in Iraq for lack of interest on the part of the American public. The lack of coverage part is easily explained by the significant gains made by US troops in fighting Al Qaeda and the vast security improvements now obvious in Baghdad and in other regions of the country. No self respecting MSM journalmalist is going to report on America's winning. Guy Millière hits the nail on the head in a recent article where he explains that the war in Iraq has been forgotten by news reporters because it has been won by the United States.

"Dialogue Social", French Style

The CGT's demonstration hailing civil servants' massive walk-out was going fine…



…until suddenly, two members of La Baf showed up with a loudspeaker and started telling the fonctionnaires that it was perhaps time to return to work…



"ALLEZ, AU BOULOOOT!"
"LA PAUSE-CAFÉ, C'EST TERMINÉÉÉ!"
"ON RETOURRRNE AU TRAVAIIIL!"



It was hard to tell whether leftists and civil servants, who usually say they love la provocation, seemed as amused when la provoc' was used in the other direction…



…after all, shouting can be a very positive thing…



…and perhaps the way they kid around with one another…



…includes shoving, pushing around, kicks, and umbrella blows to the head…



…as well as throwing each other to the ground.



(Truth to tell, some Baf members almost felt safer at the Islamists' anti-Danish cartoons demonstration…)

La CGT montre sa capacité à dialoguer
envoyé par Labaf

Anyway, these people, who are asking for un dialogue social, may have shown how open they are to opening up give-and-take discussions with le gouvernement…

¿¡Por qué no te callas?!

Hugo Chávez, who is visiting Paris, has been fired fired by the Colombians as a mediator with the FARC in securing the release of Ingrid Bettancourt.

Europeans' Ban of Weapons Again Proves to Be a Resounding Success

Le nombre d'armes est-il en augmentation ? "Je n'en suis pas sûr, il y en a de façon permanente, soupire M. Roger. Dans toutes les affaires de stupéfiants, on craint la présence d'armes."

Europeans' ban of weapons is a resounding success, according to an article by Isabelle Mandraud.

En juillet, les agents de la direction des opérations douanières de Rouen ont saisi 52 armes complètes, près de 80 kg de munitions et 177 parties de fusils, carabines et pistolets détenus sans autorisation par un avocat déchu de Seine-Maritime. Il achetait et revendait des armes via des sites de négoce sur... Internet.

…Les saisies se font au coup par coup, lors d'arrestations pour des affaires de drogue, et elles sont, en volume, peu importantes. Rien de comparable avec l'exceptionnel coup de filet du mois de janvier dans les Bouches-du-Rhône et le Var où plus de 150 armes, dont 54 kalachnikovs, avaient été découvertes...

Dans les quartiers sensibles, cette prolifération se fait par le bouche-à-oreille, par petites quantités, échappant souvent à la police. Le trafic est "parcellisé", d'où la difficulté de remonter les filières. "Il faut être modeste", reconnaît M. Veroni.

…Agrippa (pour Application de gestion du répertoire informatisé des propriétaires et possesseurs d'armes) … ne pourra rien contre le trafic, par nature, souterrain.

…"C'est un vieux projet, relativise-t-on dans l'entourage de la ministre, Michèle Alliot-Marie, qui remonte à l'affaire Durn, lorsqu'on s'est rendu compte de quelques failles dans le système."

What we didn't learn because our teachers were too busy presenting "Heather has Two Mommies" and various other liberal pet causes

When liberals talk about "informed democracy," it's usually a ruse to browbeat the already liberal media into moving further to the left

writes Benjamin Duffy.

They claim that the press is doing a poor job of informing the citizenry - which it is - but then complain that the press isn't doing a good enough job of disseminating the liberal talking points.

Cultural Omnivores with Indigestion

Funny, you would think a society that rattles on endlessly about foreign racism might actually try to conceal some of their own. Much in the way they criticize something as random as their healthcare. Truth be told, the charming and talented Amy reminds one of the fact that the garden variety European city seem to persistently remain crud and graffiti encrusted pits:

I've been here nearly two years now but have yet to receive my Carte Vitale (yeah, put that in your movie, Michael Moore!). Because I'm able to see doctors on Fred's card and hate doing paperwork and reading instructions, I could have gone on like this forever. As a condition of my new employment, however, I had to produce a card or at least an attestation that I was in the process of getting one. I received the attestation and my card was supposed to arrive the following month. Instead I received a notice that France is introducing new cards that require a photo I.D. The other night, the only night I had on make-up, I finally mustered the energy to take the photo. We arrived at the Saint Michel station photo booth a few minutes early before meeting a friend for dinner. I stepped in the booth and was ready to go. Luckily, Fred is more astute than me and said “if you use this booth that will be in the photo”. I focused on my reflection and turned around to examine the giant penis and scrotum scribbled on the plastic backdrop. I tried standing up, rearranging the seat, having Fred hold up my coat as a back drop, all to no avail. I considered just taking the photo with my head perfectly framed by male genitalia. Certainly a giant penis growing out of my ear would convince a doctor that I was worthy of medical attention.

Either that or a recording contract and some movie options.

A Rather Unlikely Group to be Arguing About “Enlargement”

The EU doesn’t have helicopter deficit disorder, it needs to grow a nutsack.

"It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time", Mr Miliband said during a speech at the College of Europe in the Belgian city of Bruges on Thursday.

"European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven't provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there", he went on.

Even though it seems useless, I imagine he went on further.

Sabotage

French rail strikers go extreme.

Throw the book at him

Chiraq interrogated for financial misdeeds.

UPDATE: Chiraq has been charged with embezzlement of public funds. Qu'il crève la gueule ouverte embastillé.

Hostile Work Environment In Need of Protective Measures Found

Just where ARE those do-gooders?

Grayson Perry, the Turner Prize-winning artist who is perhaps better known to the general public for his extravagant cross-dressing, has admitted that he censors himself when it comes to matters relating to Islam.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Art Fund, Perry said that it was simple fear which stopped him from addressing Islam in his work. 'I don't want my throat cut', he said.

Selective Outrage: How the left's agenda trumps genuine concern for human suffering

Human rights are a concern of the organization Human Rights Watch

writes Christopher Cook

....just not the their main concern.

…Why is it that Human Rights Watch and other human rights NGOs, the media, and the Democrats are strikingly uninterested in the complete collapse of freedom and severe erosion of human rights in Venezuela, but they seem fascinated by—and oh so very concerned about—the human rights situation in Colombia? Simple.

Colombia's government is center-right. This makes it an enemy of the left.

Venezuela's government is hard left. This makes it an ally of the left. It doesn't matter how authoritarian the government is. It doesn't matter if it's slightly left or far left. An ally is an ally.

For a more detailed exegesis of this pattern, along with some striking examples, see Selective Outrage: How the left's agenda trumps genuine concern for human suffering

…From a human rights standpoint, [there is] a serious imbalance unsupported by the facts surrounding real human rights abuses in the world. Looking at it that way, it makes no sense.

If, however, you look at it the way HRW does—through a filter of the left's best interests—then it makes perfect sense.

Il n'y a aucun ennemi du côté gauche.

Where’s Al?

Skiing, it was said a year ago, would permanently become a thing of the past or involve some kind of Astro-turf. This declaration was made presciently by the all knowing, all caring, predictive neo-scientific sort that the rest of us are forced to pretend are serious. What’s funnier is these are the same people who think skiing is bad for soil erosion, or as the case is with these folks – always something else, its’ inverse, obverse, and itself.

As far as early indicators go, ski resorts are to industry what frogs are to the animal kingdom - both are among the first to suffer from environmental changes. It doesn’t take a lot of looking to discover a great deal of concern from ski resort investors and management all over.

It also doesn’t take much to realize that they are under an unceasing attack of people who in spite of a habit of exaggerating are also humorless, unoriginal, and yet talk too much.

Like Al Gore. More to the point where’s Al Gore’s Gulfstream when you need it?

Austrian resorts have received a thick blanket of snow this week, allowing 26 resorts to begin their season early this weekend.

Many of the resorts are small, and able to react to events quickly. But big resorts like Obergurgl, Mayrhofen and Sallbach are also planning to open this weekend, two or three weeks ahead of schedule. Zell am Zee opens tomorrow.

The big falls have been repeated in parts of France and Switzerland, where Verbier is now scheduled to open on Saturday. Norway’s largest resort, Trysil opened today and will be followed by Hemsedal tomorrow and Geilo on Saturday.

I guess all that praying-to-Gaia, heavy taxation, PR stunts, installing recycling trash cans all over Europe that no-one ever seems to use have by themselves, through the force of good intentions and worrying people to death about doom – dropped the air temperature.

Richard North writing at his EU Referendum blog has a bead on the pattern whose only root-cause argument is one of journalistic laziness and narcissism.

So it is with global warming. The media drops its "bombshells" like well-formed turds on the pavement and then moves on, leaving others to clear up the mess behind them. Decades down the line, when the world doesn't come to an end, when the fears and the alarms prove groundless, there will be another scare in the making – or several more – and no one will want to know.

And we’re somehow supposed to not question or criticize the media that does this, whie they as a rather narrowly draw self-selected class tch-tch the mere-mortals and slobs who DO question them, using their spare time to backcheck the research of Journos who don’t look into something that they get paid to do.

How not to Compost

From the minimun wage stringers over at Rue89.com

Series of suicides among veterans back from Iraq and Afghanistan
Nurse: there's one more Mr. President.
Nurse: our hypothesis is that they are suffering from mental illness.
Bush: That's not a reason. Do you see me committing suicide?

The Final Word on the Anti-Strike Strike: Horrors! Paris's Traffic Was Perturbed for Two Hours!

"En attendant, dimanche, ces antigrèves ont perturbé la circulation pendant près de deux heures."

Ainsi se termine l'article de Zineb Dryef !!

Manifestation contre les grèves
Uploaded by rue89

Faut-il s'amuser devant les partis pris des articles de Rue 89? Ils apportent plein d'informations qui ne sont pas a priori fausses ("Organisée par les associations très conservatrices", "Dans la rue, des passants sidérés se sont parfois arrêtés pour éclater de rire. Certains riverains, depuis leurs fenêtres, ont préféré insulter les manifestants qui les ont hués en retour") mais dont les infos sont tout autant vraies pour les manifestations des fonctionnaires et des privilégiés et d'autres partis de gauche.

Or, pour les rapports sur les manifestations politiquement correctes, on ne parlera pas des "associations très gauchistes", ou des "riverains [qui], depuis leurs fenêtres, ont préféré insulter les manifestants" ou des "grèves [qui] ont perturbé la circulation pendant près de X heures." (Ôh!! Comment osent-ils!?!) Non, Madame ; là, on préfèrera privilégier le côté héroïque, le côté martyrisé, le côté "sacrificiel" de la chose, le côté "ils font tout ça pour la France et la France toute entière est derrière eux"…

Avec les gens dits de droite (avec les "En attendant" etc), on suggère une gratuité, un égoïsme, une fourberie, une malice, un s'en-foutisme-de-l'autre. (Et on se demande pourquoi les ventes de Libération stagnent…)

Update: More photos and news reports from the demonstration…

Europe Post-Nationalist Enlightenment Watch

Belgians demonstrate in Brussels using English language slogans in an effort to pull their country Chocolate factory together.